Revelation 20

20 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain. 2And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, 3and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years were ended. After that he must be loosed for a little while.

According to the traditional teaching of the Church, this 1000 year period is symbolic of the Church Age--that is, now. Satan, while not destroyed, is hindered from deceiving the nations, as evidenced by the spread of the Church throughout the World. In fact, Christianity is growing more now than it ever has before! Compare this passage with what Jesus says in Luke 10:17-20, right after the 70 disciples return from their missionary journey. Seventy, notably, is the symbolic biblical number representing the totality of the Gentile nations!

4Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom judgment was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony to Jesus and for the word of God, and 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 a thousand years. 5The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. 6Blessed and holy is he who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and they shall reign with him a thousand years.

Verse 4 contains an allusion to Daniel 7:22, which is the Messianic Judgement, in which Daniel's fourth beast is finally judged. The Beast of Revelation, recall, is a combination of all four of Daniel's beasts.

The 1000 years is again the Church Age. How is this reconciled with talk of first and second resurrections? The key, obviously, is to understand what the first and second resurrection refer to, as well as the first and second death, for they are related. The first resurrection corresponds to the second death, and the second resurrection to the first death.

The first resurrection is our rebirth, where our souls come to life by God's Grace and we enter His Covenant. The Second Death is spiritual death and separation from God for eternity in Hell. While those who are alive in Christ will die physically, they will not die spiritually. Our physical death is the first death, which corresponds to the second resurrection--that of our bodies.

So our first resurrection is our souls coming alive in Christ. This is followed by the first death, that of our bodies. After this, at the end, our bodies will be resurrected and we will come before the final judgement, where if we were partakers of the first resurrection, we have no need to fear the second death.

Those who have received the first resurrection are the Church, who reign with Christ this "1000 years".

7And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be loosed from his prison 8and will come out to deceive the nations which are at the four corners of the earth, that is, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. 9And they marched up over the broad earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city; but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, 10and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulphur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

At the end of the Church Age, there will be the Great Tribulation that Jesus predicted in Matthew 25:15-25, which was immediately fulfilled by the Sack of Jerusalem, but ultimately is fulfilled here, at the end of time. Gog and Magog were the enemies that God overcame in Ezekiel 38 (and in the last chapter, the references to Ezekiel 39 were to the triumph over Gog and Magog). God is the one who fights the battle against these figures, representative of the power of the world led by Satan. This final rebellion results in Satan's ultimate defeat.

11Then I saw a great white throne and him who sat upon it; from his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. 12And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Also another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, by what they had done.

In the presence of Almighty God, nothing else seems to exist, let alone have any relevance, hence the earth and sky fled away. There are no more hiding places and no more excuses. Rather, the books are laid open (an allusion to Daniel 7:10). These books contain the written account of all our deeds, which form the basis of our judgement. Further to that, another book was opened, the Lamb's book of life. This book is the one mentioned in Revelation 13:8, about which it says that those who worship the beast are those who are not in this Book of Life. Some translations of Rev. 13:8 make the statement that the names written in this Book were there from the foundation of the world, while others make the claim that the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world. The Church accepts both teachings.

This Book, therefore, is the Roll of those who have been predestined to Grace. It raises the age-old question of "Does God predestine everything, or do we have free will?" The Catholic Church, again, teaches both, that God predestines, but does so in a way that leaves our will free to choose. It is a mystery, along with how is One God, three separate persons?

However, the important thing to note is that we are judged by our deeds, which we are responsible for. In that mysterious way, we will deserve the judgement that we receive, which will also be corroborated by the Book of Life. This is why Revelation 13:10 stresses that "the saints must have perseverance and faith."

13And the sea gave up the dead in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead in them, and all were judged by what they had done. 14Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire; 15and if any one's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

God's just judgement is completed, and even Death and Hades are destroyed by the second death. How can Hell (the second death) destroy Hades (commonly understood to be Hell)? I think, rather, Hades refers to the state of separation from God that precedes the final resurrection, where souls before the resurrection go that are not saved, whereas the second death refers to that place where the resurrected bodies of those who are not saved end up.

Let us rejoice in God's justice and love for us, and strive to continue in that love and in His Grace.

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