Article by: Kenneth J. Ester
The Dead Who Come to Life
I believe the biggest key to understanding the timing of the rapture is found in Revelation 20:4
Revelation 20:4 NASB
4 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 foreheads and on their hands; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
I have seen Post-Tribulationists try to use this scripture to prove the Pre-Tribulation stance is wrong. The first thing they point out is that chapters 19 and 20 are in perfect chronological order. Then they point out where in the timeline these dead come to life. After the Tribulation! They try to claim this is proof text that the Pre-Trib rapture is impossible. Yet to make this claim, they have to ignore something that actually makes this scripture backfire on them. The fact that these dead come to life 'after' the second coming as well!
Jesus has already returned. The antichrist and false prophet are already cast into the lake of fire. The devil is already chained and thrown into the abyss. So if Jesus is supposed to rapture us on His way down from heaven, it is impossible for the dead to come to life in the rapture after Armageddon is finished! Because they are so intent on proving the Pre-Trib false, their own interpretation of things also proves their own stance wrong!
Because verse 5 literally says, "This is the first resurrection", they automatically presume that these dead are the dead who rise first in the rapture.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-17 (NASB)
13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. 15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.
The problem is if they are the same group, that means these two scriptures literally contradict each other. One says that the dead come to life well after the second coming. The other scripture literally says Jesus brings the dead with Him. It is impossible for both to be correct! The only choice they have left at this point is to believe the dead coming to life in Rev 20:4 is out of order. I have a major problem with that.
If you read Revelation chapters 19 and 20, you realize that there are a lot of different events listed in them. And all of them seem to be in chronological order. When Gods word gives you upwards to a dozen events and all of them are in perfect chronological order for one stance, but another stance needs to cut one or two out and rearrange them, you can be the stance that keeps them all in perfect order is the correct one. When you need to rearrange events in scripture in order to make it fit what you want to believe, you are literally twisting Gods word to fit your beliefs instead of changing your beliefs to fit Gods word. I would contend that not only does every event in chapters 19 and 20 fir perfectly in chronological order for the Pre-Trib rapture, but the dead coming to life in Rev 20 fits perfectly as well.
Lets take a look at each event in chapters 19 and 20....
Rev 19:1-6 is the Bride as a great multitude in heaven.
Rev 19:7-9 is the marriage of the Lamb.
Rev 19:11-18 shows us Jesus prepared to return in the second coming.
Rev 19:19 Has the AC and his armies gathering at Armageddon.
Rev 19:20-21 The AC and FP are captured and thrown into the lake of fire.
Rev 20:1-3 The devil is bound and thrown into the abyss.
Rev 20:4 The Bride sits in thrones. The dead Tribulation Saints come to life and joins them. They will reign with Christ for a thousand years.
Rev 20:5-6 A note that this is the first resurrection. But one needs to understand this is the completion of the resurrection. Not the entire thing.
Rev 20:7-10 The thousand years is up. Satan is freed and deceives the people. They are killed. The devil is cast into the lake of fire.
Rev 20:11-15 Judgment before the white throne. All the unsaved are cast into the lake of fire.
If you notice, what Revelation is doing here, is it follows the Bride through the entire end times. Starting with them being in heaven, all the way up to witnessing the judgment before the white throne. It is all in perfect chronological order for the Pre-Trib rapture.
So how does the dead coming to life in chapter 20 fit in you might ask? To understand that, you need to understand how the First Resurrection works.
What many Christians do not realize is that the First Resurrection is fashioned after the What Harvest of the Jews. They harvest their wheat in three stages. There is the first fruits, then the main harvest, and then the gleanings. Lets look at each of these stages....
The First Fruits -- This is where the Jews will take a small swath from the center of the field and present it to the master. He then decides whether to harvest the wheat or to let it ripen a bit more. In the Resurrection, Jesus represented the First Fruits.
The Main Harvest -- This is where they harvest the vast majority of the field, but they leave the outer fringes untouched for the poor to pick from. In the First Resurrection this stage is represented by the Rapture, when all the living and the dead believers are caught up to Jesus in the sky.
The Gleanings -- When the poor have had their time to pick from the fields, the Jews will then go and harvest the rest before it can ripen too much and rot. In the First Resurrection, this is represented by the Tribulation Saints coming to life in Chapter 20.
When the scripture says "This is the First Resurrection", it is not saying that just the dead coming to life is the entire First Resurrection. It is saying this is the completion of the First Resurrection.
Imagine I was to tell you the story of how my weekend went. I tell you about going to dinner with my wife. Then how I slept in Saturday morning, before doing some work on the house. I then tell you about the magnificent church service that saw five new souls being saved. After I went home and watched the Lions win a football game. Then I go on to tell you how on Sunday night we had to call the police because a burglar was breaking into our home. Then I ended it with "This is my weekend!" Would you think the burglar breaking in was my entire weekend? Of course not. Everything that happened over the weekend would be my weekend.
The entire First Resurrection is in three stages. The resurrection of Jesus as the First Fruits, then the rapture of the church is the main harvest. Finally it tells us of the third stage of the First Resurrection. The gleanings, which is the dead Tribulation Saints coming to life. This is the First Resurrection! The dead coming to life are not the entire first resurrection. They are the completion of the story of the First Resurrection that began with Jesus rising from the dead.
So who are the Tribulation Saints that come to life in Revelation 20 to be clear? When the rapture happens, every true believer will be caught up. However, there will be many in the world still, who knows the scriptures, but simply never truly believed it was all real. When the rapture happens, they will recognize it for what it is. They will see it as absolute proof the Bible was true all along. They will now believe and become the new church who will endure through the Tribulation. As more events that were prophesied will come true, more and more will believe and the church will grow quickly. These are the Tribulation Saints who will suffer through the Tribulation.
Through the first few years of the tribulation, some of the Christians will be persecuted and killed by the One World Religion. These are the souls you read about in the 5th Seal, who die for their testimony in Jesus and in Gods word. Then at the midpoint of the 7 year tribulation, the antichrist will have gained all of His world power and will then turn against the Jews and Christians and begin to persecute them. It will be the worst persecution this world has ever witnessed. It will be worse than the Holocaust. Most of the Tribulation Saints will be killed.
At the second coming. Jesus will descend from heaven and send forth His angels to gather His elect. Contrary to what many believe, the "elect" are not going to be the Bride because they are already raptured. They will be following Jesus back. They will not be the Tribulation Saints either for they will not rise from the dead until after all is said and done in Chapter 20. The elect in this case will be the 144,000 Jews who are sealed on their foreheads and will follow Jesus everywhere He goes. They will be gathered, but they are not caught up to Jesus. They will be gathered to Mt. Olive where Jesus will first set foot. From there they will follow Him everywhere He goes.
The dead coming to life in Revelation 20:4 literally proves the rapture cannot possibly happen at the second coming. If Jesus raptures us in His descent, then there are no tribulation saints who can come back to life. Yet as I already proved above, the dead who come to life cannot possibly be the dead who rise first in the rapture. These dead do not fit with any other rapture stance other than the Pre-Trib rapture.
Revelation 20:4 NASB
4 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 foreheads and on their hands; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
I have seen Post-Tribulationists try to use this scripture to prove the Pre-Tribulation stance is wrong. The first thing they point out is that chapters 19 and 20 are in perfect chronological order. Then they point out where in the timeline these dead come to life. After the Tribulation! They try to claim this is proof text that the Pre-Trib rapture is impossible. Yet to make this claim, they have to ignore something that actually makes this scripture backfire on them. The fact that these dead come to life 'after' the second coming as well!
Jesus has already returned. The antichrist and false prophet are already cast into the lake of fire. The devil is already chained and thrown into the abyss. So if Jesus is supposed to rapture us on His way down from heaven, it is impossible for the dead to come to life in the rapture after Armageddon is finished! Because they are so intent on proving the Pre-Trib false, their own interpretation of things also proves their own stance wrong!
Because verse 5 literally says, "This is the first resurrection", they automatically presume that these dead are the dead who rise first in the rapture.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-17 (NASB)
13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. 15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.
The problem is if they are the same group, that means these two scriptures literally contradict each other. One says that the dead come to life well after the second coming. The other scripture literally says Jesus brings the dead with Him. It is impossible for both to be correct! The only choice they have left at this point is to believe the dead coming to life in Rev 20:4 is out of order. I have a major problem with that.
If you read Revelation chapters 19 and 20, you realize that there are a lot of different events listed in them. And all of them seem to be in chronological order. When Gods word gives you upwards to a dozen events and all of them are in perfect chronological order for one stance, but another stance needs to cut one or two out and rearrange them, you can be the stance that keeps them all in perfect order is the correct one. When you need to rearrange events in scripture in order to make it fit what you want to believe, you are literally twisting Gods word to fit your beliefs instead of changing your beliefs to fit Gods word. I would contend that not only does every event in chapters 19 and 20 fir perfectly in chronological order for the Pre-Trib rapture, but the dead coming to life in Rev 20 fits perfectly as well.
Lets take a look at each event in chapters 19 and 20....
Rev 19:1-6 is the Bride as a great multitude in heaven.
Rev 19:7-9 is the marriage of the Lamb.
Rev 19:11-18 shows us Jesus prepared to return in the second coming.
Rev 19:19 Has the AC and his armies gathering at Armageddon.
Rev 19:20-21 The AC and FP are captured and thrown into the lake of fire.
Rev 20:1-3 The devil is bound and thrown into the abyss.
Rev 20:4 The Bride sits in thrones. The dead Tribulation Saints come to life and joins them. They will reign with Christ for a thousand years.
Rev 20:5-6 A note that this is the first resurrection. But one needs to understand this is the completion of the resurrection. Not the entire thing.
Rev 20:7-10 The thousand years is up. Satan is freed and deceives the people. They are killed. The devil is cast into the lake of fire.
Rev 20:11-15 Judgment before the white throne. All the unsaved are cast into the lake of fire.
If you notice, what Revelation is doing here, is it follows the Bride through the entire end times. Starting with them being in heaven, all the way up to witnessing the judgment before the white throne. It is all in perfect chronological order for the Pre-Trib rapture.
So how does the dead coming to life in chapter 20 fit in you might ask? To understand that, you need to understand how the First Resurrection works.
What many Christians do not realize is that the First Resurrection is fashioned after the What Harvest of the Jews. They harvest their wheat in three stages. There is the first fruits, then the main harvest, and then the gleanings. Lets look at each of these stages....
The First Fruits -- This is where the Jews will take a small swath from the center of the field and present it to the master. He then decides whether to harvest the wheat or to let it ripen a bit more. In the Resurrection, Jesus represented the First Fruits.
The Main Harvest -- This is where they harvest the vast majority of the field, but they leave the outer fringes untouched for the poor to pick from. In the First Resurrection this stage is represented by the Rapture, when all the living and the dead believers are caught up to Jesus in the sky.
The Gleanings -- When the poor have had their time to pick from the fields, the Jews will then go and harvest the rest before it can ripen too much and rot. In the First Resurrection, this is represented by the Tribulation Saints coming to life in Chapter 20.
When the scripture says "This is the First Resurrection", it is not saying that just the dead coming to life is the entire First Resurrection. It is saying this is the completion of the First Resurrection.
Imagine I was to tell you the story of how my weekend went. I tell you about going to dinner with my wife. Then how I slept in Saturday morning, before doing some work on the house. I then tell you about the magnificent church service that saw five new souls being saved. After I went home and watched the Lions win a football game. Then I go on to tell you how on Sunday night we had to call the police because a burglar was breaking into our home. Then I ended it with "This is my weekend!" Would you think the burglar breaking in was my entire weekend? Of course not. Everything that happened over the weekend would be my weekend.
The entire First Resurrection is in three stages. The resurrection of Jesus as the First Fruits, then the rapture of the church is the main harvest. Finally it tells us of the third stage of the First Resurrection. The gleanings, which is the dead Tribulation Saints coming to life. This is the First Resurrection! The dead coming to life are not the entire first resurrection. They are the completion of the story of the First Resurrection that began with Jesus rising from the dead.
So who are the Tribulation Saints that come to life in Revelation 20 to be clear? When the rapture happens, every true believer will be caught up. However, there will be many in the world still, who knows the scriptures, but simply never truly believed it was all real. When the rapture happens, they will recognize it for what it is. They will see it as absolute proof the Bible was true all along. They will now believe and become the new church who will endure through the Tribulation. As more events that were prophesied will come true, more and more will believe and the church will grow quickly. These are the Tribulation Saints who will suffer through the Tribulation.
Through the first few years of the tribulation, some of the Christians will be persecuted and killed by the One World Religion. These are the souls you read about in the 5th Seal, who die for their testimony in Jesus and in Gods word. Then at the midpoint of the 7 year tribulation, the antichrist will have gained all of His world power and will then turn against the Jews and Christians and begin to persecute them. It will be the worst persecution this world has ever witnessed. It will be worse than the Holocaust. Most of the Tribulation Saints will be killed.
At the second coming. Jesus will descend from heaven and send forth His angels to gather His elect. Contrary to what many believe, the "elect" are not going to be the Bride because they are already raptured. They will be following Jesus back. They will not be the Tribulation Saints either for they will not rise from the dead until after all is said and done in Chapter 20. The elect in this case will be the 144,000 Jews who are sealed on their foreheads and will follow Jesus everywhere He goes. They will be gathered, but they are not caught up to Jesus. They will be gathered to Mt. Olive where Jesus will first set foot. From there they will follow Him everywhere He goes.
The dead coming to life in Revelation 20:4 literally proves the rapture cannot possibly happen at the second coming. If Jesus raptures us in His descent, then there are no tribulation saints who can come back to life. Yet as I already proved above, the dead who come to life cannot possibly be the dead who rise first in the rapture. These dead do not fit with any other rapture stance other than the Pre-Trib rapture.
