Here are previous installments in the four-part article series, The Second Coming Does Not Begin with Armageddon:
Part 1: “Matthew 24:30–31 Is Not Describing the Battle of Armageddon in Revelation 19:11–21.”
Part 2: “The Day of the Lord’s Wrath Begins Before Armageddon”
Today, I am posting Part 3 below:
The Resurrection Occurs Before Armageddon
In this next line of evidence demonstrating that the second coming does not begin with Armageddon, I will argue that the general resurrection of all saints does not occur in conjunction with the battle of Armageddon. Posttribulationists locate the timing of the resurrection at Armageddon, while pretribulationists locate a resurrection at that same time. But in the pretrib framework, they understand it as the resurrection for “Old Testament Saints,” while the resurrection for New Testament saints occurs seven years earlier. I will show that there is no resurrection event taking place in association with Armageddon. Many interpreters locate a resurrection occurring in conjunction with the battle of Armageddon, because they cite Rev 20:4–5 as evidence:
Then I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were finished.) This is the first resurrection.
There is debate among commentators whether v. 4 denotes one or two groups; that is, whether those “beheaded” and those who “came to life” are two separate groups. However, it is difficult to avoid the close connection in the book of Revelation between refusing to worship the beast and martyrdom (e.g. Rev 13:15–16). Thus, v. 4 should be understood as a description of a single group.[1] In addition, the action “they came to life” (ezēsan) is a description of their resurrected state. It is not making a chronological or temporal statement that a resurrection is taking place at that point. The following reasons support this understanding.
First, in v. 4, they are said to sit on their thrones. It would not make sense that they sit on their thrones before their resurrection occurs. It therefore implies strongly that their resurrection occurred at a previous time before they are given authority to sit on their millennial thrones.
Second, the activity of “they came to life” is not giving the chronological timing of the resurrection, because it is linking back to the resurrection event already portrayed vividly in Rev 7:9–17 (cf. Rev 14:14–16; 15:2–4, Dan 12:1–3, Isa 25:8–26:21!). In Rev 7:9–17, just before God’s wrath begins with the scroll opening, the saints receive their reward of resurrection; while in Rev 20:4, after God’s wrath, the saints receive their reward of authority to rule with Christ in his kingdom. In Rev 20:4, John is invoking previous imagery of the beheaded souls and the cause for their martyrdom: “for their testimony to Jesus and for the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands” (cf. Rev 13:15–16). In the fifth seal vision, John clearly links their martyrdom with their former disembodied status as souls under the altar:
When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slaughtered for the word of God and for the testimony they had given; they cried out with a loud voice, ‘Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long will it be before you judge and avenge our blood on the inhabitants of the earth?’ They were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number would be complete both of their fellow servants and of their brothers and sisters, who were soon to be killed as they themselves had been killed. (Rev 6:9–11)
This promise of resurrection to the souls is realized shortly afterwards as the people of God are standing before the throne and holding in their hands palm branches signifying salvation: “After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands” (Rev 7:9).
Third, we need to consider that the the armies of heaven (Rev 19:14) who accompany Christ into battle are shown to already possess their glorified resurrected bodies. The armies of heaven are described as redeemed saints. Revelation 17:14 associates the redeemed saints with the armies of heaven in 19:14 in two regards: (1) they accompany Christ, and (2) they follow him into the eschatological battle:
[the beast and kings] will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful. (17:14)
And the armies of heaven, wearing fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. (19:14)
Revelation 17:14 most certainly anticipates the battle depicted in ch. 19, anticipates because the aftermath is portrayed in Rev 19:11—20:3. The process of “following” linked with the ones who are “called and chosen and faithful” indicates clearly that these are redeemed saints. In addition, in the immediate context, the attire of the redeemed saints in 19:7–8 is described almost identically as the attire of the armies of heaven in 19:14:
Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready; to her it has been granted to be clothed with fine linen, bright and pure—for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. (19:7–8)
And the armies of heaven, wearing fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. (19:14)
For these three reasons, the resurrection should be viewed as a presupposed event alluding back to the magnificent portrayal of the deliverance of God’s people in 7:9–17. And we know from 1 Thess 4:14–15 that the disembodied, non-resurrected saints of God are coming with him at his parousia to receive their new bodies: “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also we believe that God will bring with him those [i.e. the disembodied saints] who have fallen asleep as Christians. For we tell you this by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will surely not go ahead of those who have fallen asleep.” The saints, however in Rev 19, are not being depicted as disembodied souls following Christ into battle. Rather, they are clothed with fine linen, bright and pure, which pictures them victoriously experiencing their resurrected bodies. The motif throughout the book of Revelation is to be an overcomer against the Beast’s system. John in Rev 20:4 is thematically contrasting the state of the victory of the resurrected martyrs with the state of the defeat of the enemies of God. John is therefore not narrating the timing of the resurrection in 20:4, as if it takes place in conjunction with Armageddon (or near the first day of the millennium). They have previously been resurrected between the sixth and seventh seal and are here viewed as the ones who make up the armies of heaven who follow Christ into battle, eventuating in their reward to sit on thrones to co-reign with Christ over the conquered nations in his kingdom.[2]
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[1] See Mathewson, Revelation, 274–76.
[2] Incidentally, I do not want to rule out that angels as well might accompany Christ at Armageddon. They help administer the trumpet and bowl judgments. There is nothing that requires that it must be either/or; it could be both/and. And the plural “armies” may suggest both groups of angels and God’s redeemed. At least, they most certainly represent the redeemed people of God.
Part 4: “God’s Kingdom Occurs Before Armageddon”
