[4] Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their 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 ended. This is the first resurrection. [6] Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.
Revelation 20:4–6
In most discussions of Revelation 20, the focus tends to be on the millennium, the 1,000 year period mentioned at the end of verse 4. Is it literal? Is it figurative? Are we in it now? Is it yet to come? I even wrote a paper several years ago on the millennium, spending a good portion of it trying to make sense of the millennium in light of this text.
But what I want to do in this post is make the case that there is something important that we miss in this text if our focus is on the millennium, something that I missed for years and only recently came to see.
The term apokatastasis (Greek ἀποκατάστᾰσις) is one that was well-known during the early patristic era of Christianity, specifically developed by Origen of Alexandria. It comes from Acts 3:21 where Peter speaks of the "restoring all the things". Apokatastasis is literally restoration and speaks of the time when God will restore all things to Himself that have been corrupted by sin. The idea behind it is that there is nothing God created, having been corrupted by sin, that will not be eventually restored to God. Some have come to more popularly refer to this school of thought as universalism.
I would like to make the case that if we pay close attention to this text, the apostle John is pointing us toward the hope of apokatastastis. I say "hope" because I don't think John is explicit but rather the shape of the vision he narrates to us is guiding us toward seeing a future where God will at some point restore all things.
The first thing I want to point out is that after seeing thrones and those with authority to judge seated on them, John speaks of seeing not just people or bodies but he specifically sees souls (psuche, Greek ψυχή). What's so interesting is that right after this he speaks of how these souls had been beheaded. A beheading is inherently physical. It's the removal of a physical head from a physical body. So why would John specifically speak of seeing the souls of those who have had their heads removed from their bodies? I think John is trying to point us to the most important thing about these people who had been beheaded. Long before they had physically died by having their heads cut off from their bodies, they had experienced a kind of death to their souls, which is what freed them to embrace physical death for the sake of Jesus.
Later on in verse 4, these people are described as "those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands." Back in Revelation 13, John tells us how people who don't receive the mark of the beast on their foreheads (implied in this is worship of the beast) are unable to buy or sell. In other words, they are cutoff from all the benefits of the public economy. For one to refuse participation in the public economy was at the very least to die to a life of wealth, comfort, and convenience. At the very least, it was to die to worldly desires. At the worst, it was to physically die. For those who experienced the latter, it would always begin as an experience of the former.
We can see this earlier in Revelation:
[9] “‘I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich) and the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. [10] Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. [11] He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.’
Revelation 2:9–11
The devil's aim is to encourage us to feed and nourish our souls and all that they desire in the world. Faithfulness unto death means that we refuse to feed and nourish our souls and all that they desire in the world, even if it means physical death.
Back in the gospel of John, John records for us this teaching of Jesus:
[24] Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. [25] Whoever loves his life (psuche) loses it, and whoever hates his life (psuche) in this world will keep it for eternal life.
John 12:24–25
I think John is trying to give in Revelation 20:4 a picture of specific people who have practiced what Jesus teaches in John 12:24-25. But one reason this is difficult to see is because most English translations of these verses in John 12 render psuche as "life" rather than "soul". But when John sees souls in Revelation 20:4, this is the same word psuche as life in John 12:25.
Jesus teaches in John 12:25 that (1) whoever loves his soul (psuche) loses it and (2) whoever hates his soul (psuche) in this world will keep it for eternal life. Jesus has just gotten done speaking of the necessity of death in verse 24. So, contextually, the most natural way to understand His point in verse 25 is that rather than trying to preserve our souls and all that they desire in the world, we must embrace death to our souls and all that they desire in the world. And for those who do embrace death to our souls and all that they desire in the world, we will actually get our souls back in experiencing eternal life.
This is exactly what the souls in Revelation 20 experience:
[4] ...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 ended. This is the first resurrection. [6] Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.The people in this passage embraced death to their souls and all that they desired in the world by refusing to worship the beast and receive its mark on their foreheads. As a result of hating their lives in the world (and thus embracing death to their souls and all that they desired in the world), these people physically die. But even in their physical death, they "came to life". They kept their souls for eternal life, just as Jesus promised. To say it in the language of Revelation 20, they experienced the first resurrection.
Revelation 20:4–6
The first resurrection is a resurrection of the soul for those who died physically due to denying themselves, self-denial being a self-imposed death to the soul.
John then goes on to speak of how the second death has no power over those who share in the first resurrection. Notice these ordinal numbers: second and first. The fact that there is a second death implies that their was a first death. And the fact that their is a first resurrection implies that there is at least a second resurrection. But the text only speaks explicitly of a first resurrection and a second death. So it's left to us as readers to piece together what the first death and the second resurrection might be. This is what I meant earlier by stating that John is pointing us toward something in the way he shapes the vision he narrates to us.
Let's look again at two verses already mentioned, but now to highlight them side-by-side:
[11] He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.’
Revelation 2:11, emphasis added
[6] Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.
Revelation 20:6, emphasis added
For those who deny themselves and in so doing embrace death to their souls and all that they desire in the world, notice what John says about their relationship to the second death: (1) they will not be hurt by the second death and (2) the second death has no power over them. So we see that the second death is an entity that (1) inflicts pain and (2) exercises power.
Let's look at the last part of Revelation 20 and then we'll try to tie it all together:
[11] Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. [12] And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. [13] And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. [14] Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. [15] And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
Revelation 20:11–15
So there are two categories of people:
(1) Those who deny themselves and embrace death to their souls and all that they desire in the world (this is the implicit experience of the first death) --> these people's names are written in the book of life and they experience the first resurrection but do not experience the second death
(2) Those who don't deny themselves and feed their souls and all that they desire in the world --> these people's names are not written in the book of life and they do not experience the first resurrection but do experience the second death (and eventually comes the implicit experience of the second resurrection)
Jesus came to earth having united His deity to our humanity so that in Himself He might sum up humanity collectively in need of death (to our sinful selves) and resurrection (to new life unto God). For those who choose to follow Him in the path of the cross (death to the soul and all it desires in the world), they are united with Him in His experience of death and resurrection. This is the first death and the first resurrection. So when Jesus comes back again, these people have already experienced the primary death and resurrection that humanity is in need of.
[28] Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice [29] and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.
John 5:28–29
For the first category of people (those who follow Jesus in the self-denying path of the cross), when Jesus returns, their physical bodies come to life and they go straight into life (New Jerusalem). But for the second category of people (those who refuse to follow Jesus in the self-denying path of the cross), they have not experienced the death and resurrection that Jesus united Himself to humanity for. So when Jesus returns, their physical bodies come to life to a resurrection of judgment. They are sent to the lake of fire, which is the second death because they missed out on the first death. And because Jesus defeated death in His resurrection, death cannot forever exercise power over any of God's creatures. And death cannot forever apply its sting (pain) to any of God's creatures. If it did, then it would continue to have a measure of victory and thus it would not be fully swallowed up in victory. Only once every creature has been liberated from the power and sting of death can it be said that the last enemy death has been destroyed. At the point that the second death has completed its work on any of the creatures under its power, that creature experiences the second resurrection and enters into life (New Jerusalem). This is a painful process that could take an indeterminate period of time but isn't stated in the text to be an infinite period of time. And it's hard to see how death could exercise its power for an infinite period of time in the lake of fire if this text would hold true:
[21] For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. [22] For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. [23] But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. [24] Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. [25] For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. [26] The last enemy to be destroyed is death. [27] For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. [28] When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.
1 Corinthians 15:21–28
Choice in Life: Soul Life (Psuchē)
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Deny Self (Self-Denial) Nourish Soul Life
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Implicit First Death (Soul) No First Death
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Explicit First Resurrection (Spiritual) (No First Resurrection)
Reign with Christ • Immune to Second Death
(Rev 20:4–6)
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└─────────────────────────────────────┘
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Universal Physical Resurrection
(John 5:28–29 – All in tombs hear His voice)
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Resurrection of Life Resurrection of Judgment
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Not hurt by the second death Second Death
(Rev 2:10–11; 20:6) (Lake of Fire – Purifying/Temporary)
(Rev 20:14–15)
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│ Implicit Second Resurrection
│ (Spiritual Liberation)
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└─────────────────────────────────────┘
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New Jerusalem
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Full Victory: Death Swallowed Up
(1 Corinthians 15:54–55)
All Restored • God is all in all
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