Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #7 of Revelation chapter 20 and we are going to read Revelation 20:6:

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.

In our last study we were looking at the phrase “second death.”  We saw it was found four times in the Book of Revelation.  We also saw that God associates certain things with the “second death.”  The characteristics of the “second death” help us to understand it.  It helps us to define it. 

In our last study we began to look at three characteristics (of the “second death”) and we went through two of them.  The first characteristic of the “second death” was that there are those that are “hurt” by it.  We saw in Revelation 9 and in Revelation 22 that God uses that same word “hurt” in regard to the “five months” of torment or in regard to what happens to unsaved people in the Day of Judgment.  Those that are “hurt” or “unjust,” as it says in Revelation 22, verse 11, will be “hurt” or “unjust” still because their spiritual condition will not change.

A second characteristic of the “second death” is the “lake of fire.”  We went to Revelation 19:20, where God speaks of taking the beast and the false prophet and casting them alive into a lake of fire.  We have discussed this before and we saw that it happened at the beginning of Judgment Day on May 21, 2011.  So, too, the “hurt” that came upon the unsaved people of the earth began on that day when Judgment Day commenced and continues. 

So the characteristics of the “second death” both relate to the beginning of Judgment Day and the entire duration of it, which is typified by “five months.”

A third characteristic of the “second death” is “fire and brimstone.”  For instance, it says in Revelation 21:8:

But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

So the “lake of fire” is a lack with “fire and brimstone” and God uses the word “brimstone” in Revelation 9:17-18:

And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths. For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt.

Here, God ties together “fire, smoke and brimstone” with that word “hurt,” which was used earlier in Revelation, chapter 9 concerning the five months.  So they are “hurt” throughout the five months and they experience “fire, smoke and brimstone” throughout the figurative five months, which represents the totality of Judgment Day that will, in all likelihood, be 1,600 days.  So the “fire and brimstone” is also something the Bible speaks of as applying to the entire prolonged period of Judgment Day.

It says in Revelation 14:10:

The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:

We have gone over this many times.  The context of Revelation 14 is Judgment Day and Judgment Day began on May 21, 2011, so the third characteristic (fire and brimstone) of the second death also represents God’s wrath being poured out during the entire period of His judgment.  So this means that all three of these characteristics are linked to the “second death” and all three are in evidence throughout the entire prolonged period of Judgment Day.  And that proves that the “second death” is occurring, and has been occurring, since we entered into Judgment Day.

That is important for us to understand because we think of a “second death” and, yet, we see (unsaved) people are still walking around.  They are still going about their business as they live their lives in this world.  We think, “Well, they cannot be dead.  They cannot yet have experienced the second death because they are still living.”

But we can say the same thing about the “lake of fire.”  How can the unsaved in the churches have been cast into the fire?  And Satan was cast into the lake of fire and, yet, he still goes about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.  How can there be “fire and brimstone” when there has been no outward change in the world?  People are not being destroyed by any literal “fire and brimstone.”  But, remember, we saw a long time ago that God speaks of “fire and brimstone” spiritually.  If we turn back to Psalm, chapter 11, it says in Psalm 11:5:

JEHOVAH trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.

This is a good verse to sum up what is happening to all people during this period of God’s judgment.  God is trying the righteous and hating the unsaved.  Then it goes on to say in Psalm 11:6:

Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup.

It is the cup of God’s wrath, but notice that God says he is raining down “snares, fire and brimstone.”  A “snare” is a trap, so if anyone wanting to understand this verse literally, they would have to conclude that God is raining down “traps” out of the sky and, of course, that is not happening and it never would happen.  By adding the word “snares,” God is letting us know that we have to understand the “fire and brimstone” spiritually.  It is the cup of His wrath.  Jesus drank of the cup in the garden, but there was no literal cup.  You could not have seen any outward wrath of God striking Him – it was a spiritual judgment.  The cup is the same cup the churches drank during the 23-year judgment upon them during the Great Tribulation and it, too, was spiritual.  It was the removal of the Holy Spirit from the midst of the congregations and the removal of salvation from them.  The “fire and brimstone” represent the fierce anger of God against sin and sinners and it is not to be understood literally.

Also, it says at the end of the verse in Isaiah 30:33:

… the breath of JEHOVAH, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.

The “breath” of JEHOVAH is related to the Word of God because all Scripture is God-breathed or inspired by God, so the Word of God is breathed out and a fire is kindled in His wrath.  It is the Word of God that is judging mankind, so the “fire and brimstone” is coming forth from this Holy Book, the Bible, to condemn the (unsaved) inhabitants of the earth.

Let us go back and read, again, our verse in Revelation 20:6:

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.

Those blessed individuals that God has saved by resurrecting their souls to experience the first resurrection “shall be priests of God and of Christ.”  We know that God’s people are spiritually made to be “prophets, priests and kings.”  The Lord said in 1Peter 2:5:

Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

We are a royal priesthood and a holy priesthood.  We do service to God and Jesus Christ. 

When God writes this way and says, “they shall be priests of God and of Christ,” some people try to say, “You see?  Christ is not God – He is someone else.”  Of course, the Bible will not allow for their conclusion.  These people do not look at other Scriptures where Jesus is called LORD in many places and, yet, only God is LORD.  If Christ were not God, why does He need priests?  Only a deity needs priests to do service to Him and yet, God is saying the elect people of God are “priests of God and of Christ.”  Tell me which of the prophets had their own priests?  Did Moses have priests?  Did Isaiah or Jeremiah or any of the prophets have priests?  Of course not, because only God has priests.  False gods have false priests.  But, here, the true believers are “priests of God and of Christ” because God and Christ are equally God.  But God wrote it this way in order to confound the unregenerate and that is how the Bible is written; God wrote the Bible in a way to snare, entrap, confound and confuse the ungodly and all that are not His elect.

It goes on to say in Revelation 20:6:

… and shall reign with him a thousand years.

We have already read of a “thousand years” a few times in Revelation, chapter 20 and the key to understanding the “thousand years” reference in this passage is the context.  There have been all kinds of misunderstanding and erroneous and outlandish end time scenarios developed by certain theologians regarding this reference because they have not followed the proper principal in regard to this number.  First of all, we have to understand the spiritual meaning of this number.  The number “1,000” points to completeness.  Secondly, when we have the spiritual meaning, we apply it to what is in view in that particular passage.  What is in view when it says, “but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years”?  What is in view when it says that all those that have experienced the first resurrection will reign with Him because they are seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus?  How long will they reign with Him?  It is a “thousand years.”  It is only the carnal and fleshly mind that wants to take things literally, so they say, “Oh, this means they will reign on this earth for a literal thousand years.”  But, this is not what is in view.  How long will the elect reign with Christ?  The answer the Bible gives is that they will reign for ever and ever, because they have been given eternal life.  They will reign with Him for ever more into eternity future.  It is a glorious future that awaits each child of God, whether they are part of the firstfruits or whether they are part of the final fruits.  All who have experienced the first resurrection will reign for ever with the Lord Jesus Christ.  He has made us “prophets, priests and kings.”  We are a royal priesthood and we do reign, having been adopted into the family of God.

It is simple, is it not?  Now we understand.  It is very straight forward, once we have the “key” that God gives us regarding what to look for in understanding His Word.  He has given us a solution to the mystery, but if you do not follow the proper methodology, comparing Scripture with Scripture and looking for the spiritual meaning, you cannot understand it. 

Just imagine if you were to try to understand this with the “natural mind.”  God has just finished saying that those that have experienced the first resurrection will reign with Him a thousand years.  Then in the very next verse, it says in Revelation 20:7:

And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,

Since God had just mentioned a “thousand years,” the natural mind thinks this has to be the same (literal) thousand year period.  That is what throws them off and it leads to people developing their “pre-mil” or “post-mil” or “a-mil” doctrines and they are all wrong because they are not being careful with the Bible and, most of all, it is because the Holy Spirit is not guiding them into truth.  They do not have the Spirit of God directing them in how to properly understand the Bible.  From verse to verse we see that we cannot assume that each verse builds upon the previous verse.  And the verse that says, “And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,” is not building on the prior verse, but it is referring back to Revelation 20:2-3:

And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.

This is exactly what it says in verse 7: “And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison.”  The reference to a “thousand years” in verses 2, 3 and 7 has to do with Satan’s binding which began in 33AD and continued over the course of the entire church age for 1,955 years.  Then everything fits and harmonizes in God’s program of times and seasons.

Yet, we can see how difficult the Lord made it to understand by using the same “number” in close proximity from one verse to the next, knowing that man would make the assumption that it is speaking of the same “thousand years.”  This has led to error and faulty conclusions.  But at the time of the end, God opened the Scriptures to reveal these things to His people and we can read it with comprehension and understanding.  The wise will understand, but none of the wicked will understand because they do not know how to read the Bible.  They do not know how to come to the Holy Scriptures and read it with understanding because they try to apply worldly ways of understanding with their “grammatical, historical method” of understanding the Bible.  They utilize their manmade hermeneutics to understand a spiritual Book, a Book that is far above their understanding and they will never be able to understand it with the finite mind and their own reasoning.  Yet, God leads His people to the proper method of understanding, using the proper Biblical hermeneutic that He taught us to follow when we compare Scripture with Scripture utilizing the entire Bible.  That is how we learn right doctrine.