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Home , Lake of fire

Revelation 20 (NRSV)

1 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. 2 He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the and , and bound him for a thousand years, 3 and threw him into the pit, and locked and sealed it over him, so that he would deceive the nations no more, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be let out for a little while.

4 Then I saw thrones, and those seated on them were given authority to judge. I also saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony to Jesus and for the word of God. They had not worshiped 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. 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 are those who share in the first resurrection. Over these the has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him a thousand years.

7 When the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will come out to deceive the nations at the four corners of the earth, , in order to gather them for battle; they are as numerous as the sands of the sea. 9 They marched up over the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from heaven and consumed them. 10 And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

11 Then I saw a great white throne and the one who sat on it; the earth and the heaven fled from his presence, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Also another book was opened, the . And the dead were judged according to their works, as recorded in the books. 13 And the sea gave up the dead that were in it, Death and gave up the dead that were in them, and all were judged 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 anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

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“The passage [about the millennium] has thus been a primary site of theological contestation from the earliest days of onward.”1

“[D]ispensationalism [became] the dominant of fundamentalism and evangelism in America by the middle of the twentieth century. Large numbers of conservative Christians came to equate any denial of the tenets of this system with the denial of the faith of the Bible itself.”2

“In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; in all things, charity.” —Rupertus Meldenius

Some interpretive options

1. (e.g., Irenaeus, Tertullian, Justin Martyr)

2. (Jonathan Edwards)

3. (, Eusebius, Jerome, Augustine, Calvin, Luther)

Mark 3:27 (RSV) But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man; then indeed he may plunder his house.

Gal 2:16 yet we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law.

Eph 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—not the result of works, so that no one may boast.

Rom 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

A. “The books” according to which the dead are judged according to their works

Luke 8:17 For nothing is hidden that will not be disclosed, nor is anything secret that will not become known and come to light.

The book is the great instrument of human memory. What is written in a book will not be forgotten, but will leave an imprint, a material trace, that resists the human temptation to forget or to alter the historical record…The books of our lives do not lie. It is not we, in the end, who get to narrate our own stories, but God, whose all-seeing eye renders us utterly transparent and vulnerable….Strange as it may seem, this

1 Joseph L. Mangina, Revelation. Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2010. Amazon Kindle edition. loc. 4468. 2 Stanley J. Grenz, The Millennial Maze: Sorting Out Evangelical Options. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1992: 63. -2- too is grace: it is important that the end of my story (and of all stories) be marked by a moment of absolute truth-telling, free from the distorting influence of human self-deception and self-interest. There is grace, too, in the conviction that there will be no impunity for the rapist, the murderer, the torturer, or for the secret police who come knocking at the door and cart away the innocent, who mysteriously are never heard from again…..3

B. “The book” of life

Rev 3:5 If you conquer, you will be clothed like them in white robes, and I will not blot your name out of the book of life; I will confess your name before my Father and before his angels.

Rev 13:7b-8 [The beast] was given authority over every tribe and people and language and nation, and all the inhabitants of the earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that was slaughtered.

Rev 17:8b And the inhabitants of the earth, whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, will be amazed when they see the beast, because it was and is not and is to come.

Rev 21:27 But nothing unclean will enter it, nor anyone who practices abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

Life

Rev 2:7 To everyone who conquers, I will give permission to eat from the tree of life that is in the paradise of God.

Rev 2:10 Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.

Rev 7:17 for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

Rev 11:11 But after the three and a half days, the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and those who saw them were terrified.

Rev 21:6b To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.

Rev 22:1-2 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.

Rev 22:14 Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they will have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates.

Rev 22:17 And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.

3 Mangina, Revelation, loc. 4668 (citations omitted). -3-

“Christ is life, and to be joined to him—to be a branch of his vine or to sup with him at his table—is to participate in that life.”4

Rev 2:28 To the one who conquers I will also give the morning star. Rev 22:16 I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.

4 Mangina, Revelation, loc. 4721. -4-