Father, as we look into your word, that you will help us as we understand it, help us to draw from it those principles which would help us to walk closely in the steps of Christ and to be obedient to your word and to know you more intimately. We pray now, Father, for your blessings upon this time of study in Christ's name we ask you. Amen. Thank you and please be seated. I do apologize, the screen, I'm not sure what we did, but we've pulled a switch or a wire or something in there somewhere along the line, so it's not doing exactly what we know how to make it do, so we just have to do without that for tonight. But you should have an outline to follow that we'll be looking at tonight, and there's plenty of space on there to take notes and jot things down if you would like. So please, I hope you have picked up an outline regarding tonight's lesson on Revelation 20 verses 1-6. I would invite you to take your Bibles and turn there please to Revelation 20 verses 1-6. And we will look tonight at Amillennialism. Your date on your lesson there has last week's date reflected on it because we had intended to get to it last week and were not able to. So just scratch that out and put July 25th on it and you will be up to date on what we are doing tonight. We are in that section that I've called the final victory. We've already covered chapter 19, regarding the return of the Lord, and now we are dealing with the millennial reign of Christ, which is reflected in Revelation 20. That's every person's position. If you're an Orthodox believer, you realize that Revelation 19 discusses the second coming of Christ, and Revelation 20 discusses that reign of Christ, which we call the millennium. It's a thousand year reign. We are covering this under five headings. You should have it there in your outline, letter A, the chronology of chapters 19 and 20. That's important because we need to know whether or not it's intended to be understood chronologically or if it's intended to be something that recapitulates events that have already taken place. That's the discussion. Letter B, the binding of Satan. How is that reflected? What does that really mean? What does that look like? Is that figurative? Symbolic? Is that literal? We'll look at that. Letter C, the individuals reigning with Christ. They reign with him for a thousand years. Basically I'm going to discuss the literalness or the symbolic nature of that expression under that heading. Letter D, the first resurrection, how do we understand that expression in verse 5. And then letter E, the millennial kingdom itself in verse 6. So far we have mentioned the various theological positions that are related to how we interpret Revelation 21 through 6. I've shared with you three main understandings. There are of course others, but there are three main ways to look at it. And it all hinges on the return of Christ. Everyone who is an Orthodox believer believes that Jesus is coming again. He is returning, the return of Christ. If you believe that the return of Christ will be before the millennium begins, The word before means, well before, but we have a prefix that means before. What is the prefix? Pre, a pre-fix, right? So pre-millennial means you believe the Lord will return and then there will be a millennial kingdom. If you believe that the return of Christ will be after the millennium, the word after, what's the prefix we use for after? It is post, something that is post. So that means you are a post-millennialist. We talked about that already in the last couple of lessons. We really gave much more time to it than I had intended, but be that as it may, we did. There is one other item we're going to talk about, and that's tonight, and that is the relationship to the millennial kingdom known as amillennialism. We'll talk about that in a little bit. Before we got into all of that, I wanted to make sure we laid a few ground rules. One is that it's not a matter of orthodoxy. These are all orthodox positions. So if someone comes up to you and suggests a post-millennial view that Christ started the kingdom in his first coming, and that things are going to get better and better and better until there becomes this tipping point, as it were, so that there's this golden age of a thousand years. Some believe it's literal, some believe it's symbolic. But this long period of time, known as the Golden Age, is described in the Old Testament prophecies. The lion lying down with the lamb, the child playing on the hole of a poisonous animal, snake. then that's a post-millennialist and he is not a heretic. Don't say, blasphemy, that's not true. That is entirely an orthodox position whether we agree with it or not. Pre-millennial, amillennial, same thing. It is a matter of what? What did I suggest that it all hinges on? It all hinges on what thing? What? Say it again? Good answer, but yes, that is true. I did say that. I did say that it all hinges on price-return. But our understanding of that millennium, and whether it's going to be pre-millennial or post-millennial, what did I say was the item that I said really, it all hinges on that one item of how we understand it. Remember that? What? Literal or figurative. Did I hear another answer? Did I hear another one? What? Well, yeah, that kind of, there's the idea of one or the other. But yes, what do we call that approach, that biblical approach, whether it's going to be literal or hermeneutic, right? How we approach it. Some believe that the revelation is intended to be taken primarily, what, literally? Others say no, no, that's not true. God intended for us to understand it, what, more symbolically. We'll talk a little bit about that tonight as well. So that's really where it matters. I think, in my estimation anyway, my humble opinion and my humble understanding, that's kind of the nail, that's the crux where it all hangs, the nail where it all hangs on, is how we believe God intended us to understand this. So if you think that God intended it to be literal, you're going to take that literally. If you think, no, I think the Lord is telling us by signs and symbols and figures and he doesn't intend for us to look at this literally, then you're going to take it more spiritually and you'll probably come away amillennial or postmillennial on that. Alright, so we talked about all of that. And postmillennialism, very, very quickly, let's just give a broad overview of that. They believe that through the preaching of the gospel, greater numbers of people will be converted. false religions will die away and Christianity will grow more and more dominant. This work will culminate in a 1,000 year long golden age known as the millennium. Depending on your particular understanding of post-millennialism, some believe it will be a literal 1,000 years, some say no, it's a symbolic number. The kingdom period will be a time of peace and righteous justice throughout the earth. Satan's binding represents a future time when his influence will be greatly reduced. They're not saying that he is completely restricted, but his activity is reduced. And then there will be a final revolt by Satan after his release at the end of that thousand years, and then he will be defeated. So that's a broad overview of post-millennialism that's kind of just a review of what we've already discussed. Tonight we want to talk about amillennialism. Any questions up to this point, go first. Alright, very good. Let me give you a brief overview of the all-millennial position as well as I understand it. Number one, it does not mean no millennial. I say that because the word all-millennial, you have that, what they call an alpha privative before the millennial, which the alpha privative negates what's following. So it would sound like they believe that there's no millennium. That's not entirely accurate. They don't believe in a future literal thousand-year reign. That is true. But all millennialists would be very quick to say, we believe in a millennium, we just don't understand it as a thousand-year period in the future. How do they understand it then? Well, that's number two. The kingdom is presently being experienced. that the kingdom began when Christ came in his first advent. And he was telling all of his followers, what, repent for what the kingdom is at hand. It is here. He said the kingdom is now. And he is the king and we are in his kingdom. And so it began, that millennial period began at his first coming and will end when? At his second coming. So they believe that Christ's return is after the millennium. So in that sense, they would be post-millennial, but not the way the post-millennialists would understand that thousand-year reign. That's number three, that it'll continue until the second advent. Number four, saints reigning with Christ are those that are in heaven. They've been vindicated, so they're in heaven. Or also, and, and or, those on the earth, the victorious believer reigning with Christ on the earth. There's, again, variations on how this can be understood. And number five, Revelation 20 is to be understood symbolically, or spiritually. It's not to be understood literally. But these are figures of speech that represent a reality that is not reflected in what we might consider pre-millennialism or post-millennialism as a thousand-year reign. So what we want to do now is just kind of give our attention to how the amillennialists would look at Revelation 20 and answer some of these questions. Maybe give a few arguments, but it's not my point tonight to argue against it so much. as just to lay out the position, and of course I am going to argue a little bit against it, just because it is not my personal position. Letter A. The chronology of chapters 19 and 20. You have this problem when you come to Revelation 20, because it follows Revelation 19. Revelation 19 is a description of the return of Christ, and Revelation 20 is a description of the millennium. So you have the millennium following the return of Christ. So that if you look at it literally, you have now what position must you take if the return of Christ is before the millennium, what must you understand it to mean? Pre-millennialism. It's before. How do the amillennialists deal with that? Well, they look at Revelation as what we might think of as kind of an instant replay. I discussed some of this earlier with post-millennialism. that you have, you're watching a television, alright, you're watching television, and you're watching, I think I used the same illustration of a Rangers game, right, and somebody hits a home run, and then you come in, you know, three innings later, and you see this person hit a home run again, and you say, man, two home runs in one game, great. Well, no, all you did was you saw a replay of the same thing. And so the amillennialist looks at Revelation 20, And he says, you know, this looks a lot like stuff we've already seen, just in figurative language. And they would say, no, this is more of an instant replay. Look at Revelation 19, verses 17 and 18. And I would have all of this on the screen, but it's not functioning for us, so if you don't mind, please, I will ask you to turn to various passages in your Bible. Revelation 19, 17 and 18. Then I saw an angel standing in the sun with a loud voice who called all the birds that fly overhead, come, gather for the great supper of God. Eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and the riders, the flesh of all men, both free and slave, both small and great. Where does that wording come from? That wording comes from Ezekiel's prophecy, doesn't it? It comes from Ezekiel 39. And again, I invite you to turn there, I'm going to read the passage, but it's going to sound very much like what you just read in Revelation 19. Ezekiel 39, I'm going to pick up my reading with verse 17. As for you, son of man, thus says the Lord God, speak to the birds of every sort of all the beasts of the field. Assemble, come, gather all around the sacrificial feast that I am preparing for you. A great sacrificial feast on the mountains of Israel, and you shall eat flesh and drink blood. You shall eat the flesh of the mighty, the flesh of the blood of princes, the earth of rams, lambs, seagoats, bulls, the fat beasts of Bashan. You shall eat fat until you're filled, drink blood until you're drunk. Doesn't that sound exactly like what you just read in Revelation 19? What is that describing in Ezekiel 39? Against whom is God making that horrific prophecy? Well, that's found in Ezekiel 38. So if you look in Ezekiel 38, in verse 2, it says, Son of Man, set your face toward whom? What does it say? What's the word? Three-letter word. Gog and of the land of Magog. Now there's some differing understandings of exactly who's Gog and who's Magog or who's Gog and what's Magog, but you know those are two terms, however you understand those terms. Gog and Magog. In Ezekiel 38's prophecy, Then you see in Ezekiel 39 this description of this horrific battle that takes place, and it looks just like Revelation 19, doesn't it? Just like it. Now look at Revelation 20 and verse 7. This takes place at the end of the millennium, doesn't it? Revelation 20. Verses 7 through 9, we know all that takes place at the end of the millennium. It says, when the thousand years are ended. I mean, that's our key, right? I mean, it can't get any clearer. When the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth. What's the next word? Gog. And what? Magog. Now, that sounds just like Revelation 19, doesn't it? It sounds just like Ezekiel's prophecy. So when you come to Revelation 20, the Amillennialist says, you know, that just looks like an instant replay to me. I think we're looking backwards. So what they do is they take Revelation 19 and 20 and do what? They reverse them. I shouldn't put it in that, that's really not accurate, but they say that Revelation 20 is describing events that precede and go up to Revelation 19. Everybody see that? I'm not asking you to agree. I'm just asking you to see the reasoning. You see the reasoning there? Why Revelation 20 would follow. It looks like the same thing. So if this battle happens after the thousand years, Revelation 20 verse 7, And before the Lord's return, Revelation 19-11, then the millennium must be before the return of Christ. So the Amillennials believe that the thousand year reign is going on right now, and that Revelation 20 is not to be understood as describing events that are subsequent to Revelation 19, but that Revelation 20 is a recap of previous events. There's lots of material on this, and I could present a lot more of some of the arguments. When you look about this, you know, Satan being cast down, well that looks just like Revelation 12, doesn't it? Satan's cast out of heaven, now Satan's cast down into this abyss, that looks a lot like Revelation 12 as well. And we can kind of move through the text that way, as some all-millennial teachers have that I have read and I have also listened to. So, again, I'm not asking you to agree, just showing you how they deal with the chronology of Revelation 19 and 20. Okay? I'm not going to argue against the point tonight, but just going to show you what that is. Alright, what about the binding of Satan? That's letter B. The binding of Satan, verses 1 through 3. In fact, would you please turn back to Revelation 20, if you're not there yet? And let's look at these verses again. It says, Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. Now, we're going to stop right there, just hang on for a second. The question is not just the binding, is it? I mean, I have it titled, the letter B, The Binding of Satan. But there's more to it than that, isn't there? It's not just the binding. There's other things going on here, too. Look at verse 3. Not only was he bound for a thousand years, but also threw him into a pit. Then did what? After he threw him into a pit, did what? Shut it. After they shut the pit, what did the angel do? Sealed it over him. So you have at least four things happening here. Binding, throwing, shutting and sealing. So that he might not deceive the nations any longer until the thousand years are ended. And after that he must be released for a little while. So if you say You know, letter A, the chronology of Revelation 20, you know, I can see that. Happens before, it's a replay, okay. But what about this binding? I mean, it looks like he's just completely restricted, doesn't he? He's just... The Amillennialist says, if, you know, Satan is bound, the Amillennialist says that this is actually a figurative way of describing how Christ bound Satan during his first advent. when Christ first came and he bound Satan. Satan is currently bound and will remain so until the end of the Millennial Kingdom. What scriptural evidence do they present for this view? A couple of them, there are a lot, just for tonight I'll give you a couple. One is in Mark, chapter 3. And I'm going to read from verses 22 to 27. If you want to follow along, you may. But the main point, the main line is Mark 3.27. Pick it up from Mark 3.22. The scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, he is possessed by Beelzebub, and by the prince of demons, he casts out the demons. You see, they're just accusing him of his power not coming from the Almighty God, Jehovah, but his power to cast out demons is coming from Satan himself. That's what they're accusing him of. And he called them to him and said to them in parables, how can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, the kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end. And so now Jesus illustrates that very point. And he says in verse 27, but no one can enter a strongman's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strongman. Then indeed he may plunder his house. The illustration is this, you break into someone's home, sure enough the homeowner is there, you want the homeowner's goods, so you bind the homeowner, And now you can take the person's goods. Now, that's the illustration. What's the meaning behind all those little figures? Who's the one breaking into the house in this figure? I know it doesn't sound good, but who is it? That's Jesus. Who's the homeowner? Satan is being bound. What's the plunder? The souls of men, right? So Satan is bound Jesus, in order for Jesus to come into the house, and this sounds... I'm not even sure I like the way this all sounds, but it is what it seems to appear. Goes into the house, you first bind the strong man who is Satan, then you can what? Claim the goods. You get all those goods. So what does it look like he's doing? Satan is being bound by Jesus. When? When? at his first coming, in his ministry, at the beginning. He binds Satan, then takes his goods. Or takes the goods from the house. I think all of us understand that Jesus owes nothing to Satan. Please don't walk away thinking that. I think that's wrong. I'll get into that tonight, but I think we all understand that. So Jesus bound Satan. The binding of Satan represents the victory of Christ over the powers of darkness accomplished at the cross. Now, certain Amalettists, again, varying understanding as to how much of that was done during the life ministry of Christ, but of course it was finalized when at the cross. So, the Amillennialist would say, the binding of Satan represents the victory of Christ over the powers of darkness accomplished at the cross. Agree or disagree, I think that's a fair, in fact, I don't know where I got that, I have a feeling I wrote it down, but I did not put down my source for that, so I don't know who said that. But that is an Amillennial point, right from the position, from that person who holds that position. Let me give you another example, so that everybody see that. I'm not asking you to agree, just anybody not see it. Another passage, another gospel, Luke chapter 10. Luke chapter 10, and I'm just going to read a couple of verses. We're going to read the first verse, Luke chapter 10 verse 1. After this, the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of Him, two by two, into every town and place where He Himself was about to go. Then in verses 2-16 you have all these instructions, what they're to bring, what they're to wear, what they're not to do, what happens if they're not accepted, and on and on you have these instructions. Obviously they go out, they carry on the Lord's ministry, and then they return, verse 17, Luke 10. Verse 17, "...the 72 returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name." And so you can see from that statement that it's as though Satan is bound in some way and that they have now been victorious in able to do the work of the ministry that has been sent out for them to do. I want to read a quote from an Amillennialist by the name of Sam Hamstra. Sam Hamster is an affiliate professor of church history and worship at Northern Seminary, founding pastor of Living Hope Church in an area near Chicago. But if you are familiar with this little volume that is edited by Stan Gundry regarding the Four Views, there's a whole series of these, you're probably, some of you are already familiar with these series of Four Views. This is the one called Four Views on the Book of Revelation. And I'm just reading from an Amillennialist, his position, his understanding of Revelation 20 and the binding of Satan, and this is what he says. He says, the vision, Revelation 20, the vision begins with a heavenly angel capturing and binding Satan for a thousand years. allowing scripture to interpret scripture, in other words, he's using what we call the analogy of scripture, going back to other passages and seeing how this all fits, we may conclude that this scene describes the effect of Christ's earthly ministry on Satan. And then he uses those very two scriptures we just read as points of proof for that very thing. This is consistent with several visions in the Apocalypse that return the reader to the beginning of our current dispensation. In other words, they're returning the reader back to when Christ first came and describing the condition of the Church as we live in it right now. This vision highlights Jesus' dominion over the serpent through the crucifixion and resurrection. Through his redemptive work, Christ curtailed the forces of Satan and paved the way for the successful proclamation of the Gospel throughout the world. Of course, this does not mean that Satan is neutralized. On the contrary, God permits Satan to influence and impact society within the circle of his imprisonment. That's a quote from Sam Hamster. And I think that that pretty much sums up the position of just about all the orthodox amillennialists that I have read and that I have listened to. Revelation, let me just give you a couple of examples of that also in Revelation. He mentioned that you can see it in Revelation, a couple of other places, again you can determine if you'd like to, Revelation 12 verse 9. It says, The great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who was called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth and his angels were thrown down with him. So there's that throwing down of Satan that we kind of see here in Revelation 20. And then Revelation 20 verse 3, threw him into a pit, shut him, sealed it over him so that he might not deceive the nations any longer. So there's that, sort of like you're going back in time to see that same thing happening. Question, what about the fact that Satan is still busy and active in the world today? There's a sort of a tongue-in-cheek answer that I have given. I just say it because it's sort of, I call it playful banter between premillennialists and amillennialists. And that is that, well, if Satan's on a chain, he is on a very long chain. If he's bound, he is on a long chain. And the amillennialist would totally agree with that. Yes, he is, he's chained, but his influence has not been completely negated, it has been curtailed. And they would say it this way, the binding of Satan did not eliminate his activity, it merely restricted it. Someone has said this, another Amillennialist by the name of William Cox. said this, someone has said this, William Cox said this, Satan, though bound, still goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. The chain with which he is bound is a long one, allowing him much freedom of movement. So that is, I've given you two amillennial answers to that question about the binding of Satan. And it's right from the horse's mouth, and I'm not trying to characterize it in any way. That's how they understand it. Your question? Well, I'm not exactly sure what you're... Are you saying that he's incarcerated, so he's not doing it directly, but he is doing it through his demonic armies? I don't think that that's an accurate way to describe what Satan is about currently, if we look at passages of scripture, especially warnings like, well, 1 Peter 5a comes to mind, where Peter says, be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, does what? walketh about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. So I think that kind of tells us who is walking about like a roaring lion. We certainly agree that he has a demonic army at his disposal because that's described in Ephesians 6. But we do have a real personal adversary, Satan, who does really tempt. And the amillennial answer is that yes, he is bound, but he is not entirely restricted, just curtailed in his activity in a certain way. You're welcome. In fact, what they would do is they would answer this question. If we are to understand Satan being bound, how is it that he is bound? To what purpose? The Amillennialists would direct our attention to Revelation 20 verses 2 and 3, where it says in verse 2 that he is bound for a thousand years. Then verse 3, it says that he threw him into a pit, shut it, sealed it over him, and then you have this purpose clause, so that. He is restricted so that, what? He might not deceive the nations any longer. So the Amillennialists would say, no, he is still roaming about, but he is on a chain, he is curtailed and restricted, But he still has activity, it's just that he cannot deceive the nations like he used to deceive them in the Old Testament days. I don't have a quote for this, and so I'm just going to explain it as best I know it. And if I am in error, or if I have mischaracterized it in any way, and you are here and you want to correct me on this, I'm... amenable to that correction. But the way I understand the position is this, that in the Old Testament days, there was one nation chosen and followed Jehovah theocratically. That was Israel. The other nations were, in a sense, blinded. They did not. However, in the New Covenant, what happens now? It's not just national. Now who's invited to be a part of this company of God? This people of God. Now who? All nations. So now it's not a matter of ethnicity anymore, is it? Now it's all the nations. And so the Amillennius would say in that sense, Satan's blindness and deception over these other nations has been curtailed and now the gospel can freely run to these other nations. I think I have fairly stated the position there. Any objections to that? I do have some objections to that. I'm not going to get to them tonight or I won't be able to finish the position. When we get to premillennialism, I'll share some of those objections and we'll talk about how do we answer that then. If he's curtailed in that way, how do we answer that? We will. Let us see. These individuals reigning with Christ, in verse 4, says, Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. And then, how long was that commitment? Well, it says, the last sentence in verse 4 says, They came to life and reigned with him for a thousand years. These individuals reigned for a thousand years. Is that literal or figurative? Well, Believe it or not, there was a day, and I can't prove this, but from the Amillennialists themselves would say, that until the year 1000, they believed it to be how long? A thousand years. They said it's going to be a thousand years, and a thousand years comes up, Christ will return. That didn't happen. But that didn't happen. So it's already 2,000 years now. So you have to understand this 1,000 years now as what? It has to be figurative. And I gave you a couple of examples of that already. Where Peter says, do I forgive my brother 7 times? Jesus said, what, no, 70 times 7. Does Jesus mean that's literally 490 times? No. No. It's figurative. We have to understand that as limitless forgiveness. The Amalinist comes to a thousand years and he says that this is figurative. Why would he come to such a conclusion that it's figurative? Well, one reason is that Revelation is filled with symbolic language. In fact, you have it explained in the very first verse of the very first chapter. Revelation 1 and verse 1, we have these words, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place, and here we have in our English version, he made it known, in our ESV, he made it known by sending his angel to his servant John. Those three English words, made it known, translate the Greek word, which usually is translated as signs. If we could make a verb out of it, we would say that he signified it by sending his angel. So he's going to communicate it with what? Signs. And so you look at Revelation and it's filled with what? Visions. I mean, lots and lots of pictures and signs in our mind. We just see all this collage of things going on. And certainly a great deal of this book is filled with symbolism that we are not to understand as literal. It's figurative. And so you come to the number 1,000, that must be a figurative number as well, because the book is filled with symbols. Other portions of the book are highly figurative, so is this one. I have a couple of quotes here. This one from Anthony Hokema. A lot of you know that name, Anthony Hokema. He was a respected professor of scriptural theology at Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids. He said this, since the number 10, and we're going to come up with this why 1,000 years is symbolic, since the number 10 signifies completeness, And since a thousand is ten to the third power, we may think of the expression a thousand years as standing for a complete period, a very long period of indeterminate length. Now last week, I think it was last week, I gave you, was it last week, I gave you a quote from 7 plus 3 equals 10, times 10 times 10 to the third power, it becomes 1,000. That was, who did I quote last week? Who? Bettner, Lorraine Bettner, that's right, a quote of Bettner. That was his position on that last week. So depending on, and Bettner is a post-millennialist, who thinks that a thousand years is not to be taken literally, who thought, depending on what's true or not, he may still think that, he may not, because he's with the Lord. Now, so you see the thousand years, how it can become figurative. Again, I'm not asking you to agree, I'm just asking you to see the position, because it could be figurative. Let me give you another name, Kenneth Gentry, another amillennialist. Here's his explanation of the thousand years. Ten is the number of quantitative perfection, apparently because it is the full complement of digits on a person's hands or feet. Because one thousand is the cube of ten, It is surely a symbolic sum representing quantitative perfection. And so you have three ways now that people came up with ten. Bettner comes up with ten because it's seven, which is a perfect number. Three is a perfect number, comes up to ten, times ten times ten is a thousand. Hokema says, would you start with ten, start with, because that's a perfection number, times ten times ten, you get a thousand, complete perfection. And Gentry now, because ten is the full number of fingers and toes, that's the number, completeness. So, agree or disagree, that is right from the horse's mouth, as it were, from the Ammalenist himself. We'll talk about that next week, when we talk about the premillennial position, and I'll offer some argumentation against that. Letter D, the first resurrection, verse 5. It says, the rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. We talked about that already. The First Resurrection. What's the First Resurrection? What's the First Resurrection? In Revelation 21-6, what's the First Resurrection? I'm not going to answer for you. You have to tell me. Class? There will be a quiz next week. I know I talked about it at least twice already. You want to know why I review so much? What's the first resurrection? According to Revelation 21-6, where is the first resurrection? What? No. Yeah. But not in Revelation 21-6. Good try. Verse 4. What does it say in verse 4? You have people that are, we have souls that are what? Martyred, right? For Jesus. And then what happens to them in verse 4? They what? They, say it out loud, three words. They came to life. Is that not in verse 4? Is they came to life in verse 4? Am I reading the wrong verse? You're looking at me like I have two heads. I could be wrong. I don't think I'm wrong, but I could be. Doesn't it say something in verse 4 about people being beheaded and then they did what? What happened to them? They came to life. There it is in verse 4. That's the first resurrection. That they came to life. So what does that mean? Then you have in verse 5 another group of people. What are they doing? At the end of the thousand years, what do they do? They come to life. So now you have two resurrections. So you have one resurrection, the first resurrection, and the second resurrection. Does everyone see that? Everyone see that? So where is the first resurrection in Revelation 21-6? Verse 4. So from verse 4, there it is. Now, if that is a, when we think about resurrection, what do we think about? When you hear the word resurrection, what do you think about? Just say it out loud, this is not a trick question. When I say someone, they were raised, they were resurrected, what do you think of? They came back to life. They were in a grave, they were behind a stone, and Jesus said, Lazarus, what? Come forth. And they walked right out of that grave. That's what you think of. That's a physical, literal resurrection. That's a physical resurrection, right? This second resurrection, that the rest of the day did not come to life until the end, that's a resurrection, right? They came to life. That's a physical resurrection. What about that first resurrection? Well, if the first resurrection is physical, and the second resurrection is physical, and there's a thousand years in between, you have to walk away premillennial. Because that first resurrection happens when? Before the thousand years starts. Because they're raised from the dead, and then they reign for a thousand years, and then there's another resurrection a thousand years later. So how does the Amillennials deal with that? That first resurrection is not physical resurrection. It's a spiritual resurrection. Or, it's the ascension of a dead believer, and his spirit goes to heaven. There are two ways to look at that, and I don't want to further complicate the thing, but just imagine, just think of it this way, just think of it as coming to life as a believer, because that's the general position. Some take the position that no, it's not coming to life and faith in Christ, it's the ascension and going to heaven. That's that resurrection. Even though nowhere else in the Bible does it ever describe that as a resurrection, but they say it does here. The Amillennialist's view is that that first resurrection is a spiritual resurrection. Verse 4, those people that are dead for their faith in Christ and then they come to life, that's spiritual resurrection, according to the Amillennialists. Is that fair? Am I sure I'm being fair? How do you come up with that? What's the scriptural evidence for that? Ephesians 2 is one scriptural evidence. Ephesians 2 verse 1, it says, You were dead in your trespasses and sins. Then you go down to verse 4. But God, being rich in mercy, even when we were dead in our trespasses, did what? He made us alive. So it's as though he resurrected us, didn't he? We were dead in our trespasses and sins. He spoke to us just as Jesus spoke to Lazarus who was in the grave dead and said, Lazarus, come forth. You were dead in your trespasses and sins. God called your name, gave you a new heart, gave you life, granted you grace of repentance and faith. You expressed that faith and by grace you were converted. That's spiritual resurrection. And the Amulimilists would say that that's described in Ephesians 2. You have it also in Romans 8. Romans 8, verses 10 and 11. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness. Romans 8, 11. If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. So again, it's a description of spiritual life as though rising from the dead. There are some difficulties with this. My time is really going away, so I'm not going to get into it tonight. I'm just going to get to the last point. If we have a minute, I might touch on it, but I'll probably deal with it next week when we look at the premillennial position. So, does everybody see that? How do you deal with that first resurrection? Because if the first resurrection is physical, and the second resurrection is physical, and there's a thousand years between them, you've got to be a premillennialist. You can't walk away any other way. So you have to deal with that first resurrection. Is that physical or is that spiritual? Well, the Amillennialist says no, that is a spiritual resurrection. It has to do with the people of God being dead in their trespasses and sins. God raises them from the dead. Or it has a reference to the fact that believers have died in the Lord and they have been ascended to heaven where they reign with Christ. Does everybody see that? Anybody not see that? the millennial kingdom for six blessed and holy is the one who shares the first resurrection over such the second death has no power they will be priests of God Christ and they will reign with him for a thousand years The Amillennialist believes that this rain takes place in heaven. So the idea is that you've got these saints who are reigning with Christ. But you look around on this planet and it doesn't look like we're reigning, does it? It looks like we're losing, to be honest. Because you look around and you see the powers of darkness getting stronger and stronger, at least it appears. But we have been given assurance of Christ that we are what? We are more than conquerors. In fact, in Revelation, those letters to the churches, there's a promise to every church regarding conquering. Those who are overcome, those who overcome. I think our King James uses the word overcometh, overcometh, overcometh. I think the ESV uses conquer, conquer, conquer. It doesn't look like we're conquering, but we are told that we are. And we gain these spiritual victories. The Amillennialists would say that no, that millennial reign, the reigning of Christ, the reigning of his believers is not on earth as it were, but it is Christ ruling in sovereignty from his throne over all the affairs of the earth in sovereign control. That's the kingdom. And we wouldn't deny that, would we? Who here is going to deny that Christ is on his throne ruling and reigning over every molecule that moves in his creation? No one argues against that. And the Amulinus would say, well, that's the kingdom. And that's what it looks, that's what it means for these saints who reign with him over the earth in Christ. I have a few difficulties with that position here, but I think I'll leave that for next week. Any questions on any of this so far, those five positions? Mainly, I want to make sure that I have presented the position correctly. Have I been fair? I don't see anybody shaking a head. So that is the position, and again, it may certainly be the correct position. This is not a hill to die on. Again, all the reformed standards don't even address this point. You can read until your eyes grow weary and read all the reformed doctrines, the reformed standards, the Westminster, the Belgian Confession, the London Confession, Savoy Declaration, all of them. The catechisms, I don't know about the catechisms, I don't think so, but maybe they do. I could have that wrong. But you can hold any of those and be awe, pre, or post-millennial. So it has nothing to do with orthodoxy. It's just a matter of how we understand Revelation 20. Any questions? I'm sorry. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time together again in your word and we pray please that as we look into your word that we would walk away from it, whether or not we understand this millennial reign the same way as all of our other believers, brothers and sisters, we still anticipate the return of Christ. We anticipate living and reigning with Christ and ruling with Him in whatever capacity that may be, and that is our desire to do. We ask, please, that you would minister in our time of prayer to follow. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.