Read or listen The Book of Revelation, chapter 20 online (ESV, YouVersion)

They will Reign with Christ 20:1-6

John sees an angel with a key and chains in his hand. The “angel” could be Jesus himself—he defeated the Devil—or the angel could be a servant of Jesus. The angel binds the Evil One, whom John calls the dragon, and throws him into the abyss. John tells us that the Evil One is bound for a thousand years. Then he is released and allowed to do bad things for a little while.

John also sees those who have not served the beast in this world. They will come to life and reign with Jesus for a thousand years. John says that this is the first resurrection, and calls those who have part in it blessed. Over them the "second death" has no power.

Verse 14 tells us that the second death means eternal damnation, where the Devil and his servants are thrown. Those who rise in the first resurrection are therefore in no danger of being lost. They are the saved, which is what is meant by blessed here.

What does the vision mean? I will present three ways in which the vision has been explained.

1) Jehovah's Witnesses and many Christians also think that the millennial kingdom means a paradise-like time that will come to earth before the final judgment and that will last for a thousand years. Life goes on as before – we work, start families, and raise children – but the Devil is not allowed to act and therefore the evil things does not happen. Jesus will come to earth. Then those who have died in faith in Jesus will rise from their graves and rule the world together with Jesus, perhaps from Jerusalem.

Many people find this explanation very good. However, there are problems with it: The New Testament does not speak anywhere else about an earthly paradise at the end of time. If such a time were coming, it would seem natural that Jesus, in his long discourse about the end of this world (Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21), or Paul in his letters to the churches, would at least refer to a coming time of happiness. Rather, the New Testament paints a picture of the world becoming increasingly worse and evil only ending on the last day when Jesus arrives and carries out the final judgment.

It is equally difficult to point to a passage in the Bible that teaches that there are two resurrections of the body, separated by a thousand years—first the resurrection of believers and then of others. The resurrection of the body - both of believers and those who died in unbelief - will occur at the arrival of Jesus. John sees in the vision Jesus' own souls (verse 4), not bodies, so the resurrection of the body has not yet occurred. It is hard to think that in this world, spiritual beings with Jesus would act as ministers and other decision-makers.

The mentioned explanation can also be dangerous: Someone may think that they are not in a hurry to sort things out with God, because they will have time to do it during the thousand-year kingdom.
Some have liked this explanation because they hope for a time when life would be like it is today, but where those who have believed in Jesus and are now having a hard time would have better conditions than others. Such a desire to show others that we are doing well now is not very Christian. The Lutheran Fathers rejected this explanation.

2) The Church Father Augustine thought that the thousand-year kingdom refers to the Church of Christ. Jesus defeated the Devil and the Church proclaims this victory. Satan can only do what Jesus allows, and therefore he can be said to be bound. Jesus' followers have the gospel, which frees people from the power of the Evil One and gives eternal life. Or Jesus' followers may not forgive sins, and therefore it can be said that Jesus' followers have the power to judge the world. Christians pray to him who has all power, and that is to rule the world. Augustine did not think the number one thousand should be taken literally. It describes the age of the Church, which began at Pentecost, when God gave the Holy Spirit to His own, and ends with the return of Jesus. In verse 6 of the first resurrection, Augustine thought it meant that a person is born as a child of God.

Jesus also spoke of binding Satan: according to him, the fact that he freed a man who was in the Devil’s chains meant that he had bound the Devil (Mt 12:29). By binding, Jesus does not mean that the Evil One cannot act at all. Also in the vision of the thousand-year kingdom, binding the Devil does not necessarily mean that his activity will cease completely. It may therefore be a matter of limiting his activity. This is how Augustine understood the vision.

The church father's way of explaining the vision seems to fit, for example, many Western countries: Christ's Church has been allowed to freely proclaim the gospel, bring salvation to many, and pray. Christians have not been persecuted, and Satan's activities have been so limited that he can be said to be in chains. Then one can ask: are we now moving towards the end of the thousand years and the Evil One being let loose for a little while? There are signs that this is the case: false doctrines are taking over, the clear gospel is being heard less and less often, and other things that are the work of the Devil are happening more and more widely.

Perhaps the biggest problem with Augustine's explanation is that the Devil operates so widely in different parts of the world. It may seem difficult to think that he is so bound in this world that one could say that he is shut up in the abyss.

3) There is a third possibility to understand the description of the millennial kingdom: Perhaps the vision refers to the kingdom that is with God in heaven now, and not only after the final judgment is over. Satan has been cast out of heaven, as recorded in Revelation chapter 12, and so John may say that Satan was bound and cast into the abyss. The fact that John sees the souls of those who have been killed for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God and says that they will rule with Jesus fits well with the fact that the Millennial Kingdom is now in heaven.

When God's own dies, his body is put in the grave to wait for the last day, but the soul does not remain there. God's own soul goes to heaven, and the Devil's activity does not continue there. The first resurrection would therefore mean that God's own dies and his/her soul goes to God. Verse 6 says that damnation has no power over those who partake of the first resurrection. This also fits well with this explanation. Those who have died and not renounced Jesus are no longer in danger of eternal damnation.

Augustine was certainly right that a thousand years does not mean a period of time that lasts 1000 x 365 days. The chapters of the Book of Revelation do not so much tell the exact number, but they have a different message. A thousand years apparently describes a long period of time without specifying exactly how long it is. If we think the vision means what was said above, the thousand-year kingdom in heaven began when the first believer in Jesus - specifically the first one to die because of believing in Jesus - arrived in heaven. It continues until, on the last day, at the resurrection of the body, the souls clothe themselves in bodies and eternity begins for people as a whole - soul and body.

The number 1000 also reminds us that although we do not know the length of this period, God does. The number also tells us that there is a long time between the death of the first Christian martyrs and the last day and the return of Jesus. Some say that Jesus also thought that he would return to earth a few years after his resurrection, and he was wrong. This passage from the Book of Revelation speaks of Jesus not being wrong, even though almost two thousand years have passed.

This is, in my opinion, the best explanation for the vision of the thousand-year kingdom. John is not telling of some future time of happiness but of what happens to Christ's own after death. In this world, God's people are on a battlefield, and God may allow the Devil to do much evil. But the battle ends when the Christian, through death, passes beyond the reach of Evil. A kingdom awaits those who belong to God, where they may live and rule together with their Lord.

I believe that this is exactly what the vision wanted to say to the first Christians, and that is what they needed. The Devil and the people who were on his side were attacking them in a terrible way: they were thrown to lions and humiliated, many laughed at them and tried to force them to deny their faith. The vision encourages to remain Jesus' own. It tells what is after this life, if you live and die without giving up Jesus. They will go where Jesus is, and there those who belong to Jesus will also become rulers and judges of those who have ruled them and passed judgment on them in this world. In the First Letter to the Corinthians, Paul apparently writes about the same thing: "Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world?" (1 Cor 6:2) Without giving up on Jesus, we can get where the Devil can't reach. That's why we're in a good position.

Verse 6 also says that we are priests of God and of Christ. The most important meaning of this is that we can get to God. In the Old Testament, only priests were allowed to enter the most holy parts of the temple, and of them, only the high priest was allowed to enter the most holy place, where God was believed to dwell. Now the right to go where God lives is for all of Jesus' own people. Jesus has arranged that right for us and that is why the Book of Revelation says that Jesus has made us priests. And perhaps Jesus' own people perform the duties of priests before God - offer sacrifices of thanksgiving to God, that is, praise God for his works, in which his great mercy is seen - and pray for those still living on earth. It may be that this is also that reigning.

Those who have reached the first resurrection are said not to have received the mark of the beast on their foreheads or hands. The mark of the beast is something that indicates that one is serving the beast that opposes God and fights against God's people. The mark of the beast is not something that comes to a person unnoticed or accidentally. Becoming a servant of the beast and taking the mark as a sign of it are conscious choices. The choice is made under the pressure that many do so. Even under that pressure, God's own must remain on the side of him who has all power. Only by doing so will a person be among those blessed over whom the second death has no power.

The Last Battle 20:7-10

John sees the final spectacle of this world. He has seen it before and described it, and now he sees it again. It must be the same thing that Jesus called the greatest tribulation (Matthew 24:21). God will let the Devil loose. So the Devil is allowed to act especially - even though God is above him - and he attacks one last time.

Some have seen this as a description of a great war that will break out just before Jesus returns, especially around Jerusalem. It may be that the Devil will bring about a war in which the world will burn more fiercely than ever before. Perhaps, however, the vision depicts the war that the Devil wages against God and his people.

In the final battle, the Evil One will use his last forces to deceive as many as possible, to lead others to perdition, and to destroy God's church. The mention of "the camp of the saints and the beloved city" in verse 9 probably refers to the kingdom of God and those belonging to it, as opposed to Babylon mentioned in the Book of Revelation, which describes the kingdom of the Devil.

Gog and Magog, mentioned in verse 8, are also mentioned in the book of Ezekiel (Ezekiel 38 and 39). We do not know for sure who Ezekiel meant by them. Perhaps he was referring to the Scythians, who threatened the people of Israel. Later, the Jews thought that Gog and Magog meant all those nations that threatened the chosen people. Apparently, this is also what John means: Gog and Magog describe all those servants of the Devil who attack the Church of Christ just before Jesus' return.

The final battle is fierce. The Devil gathers many people and does everything he can to win the war. John does not describe the stages of the battle, but he does tell us the outcome: fire falls from heaven and strikes the Devil's forces. Jesus is the Victor and everyone will know that on the day when the Devil has lost his last battle. It is the end of this world and the Devil will be thrown into hell, which is now called the lake of fire. There are also the servants of the Devil, the beast and the false prophet, and their torment will never end.

There are those who say that hell is not endless - that it lasts for a while and then those who are there cease to exist. That would seem like a good and merciful idea. However, the Bible teaches otherwise. Heaven is endless, and John also says of damnation: "Forever and ever." We don't advise God what he should do. God is wise and good. The greatest wisdom for a person is to hold fast to what God reveals, even when we do not understand or find it difficult to accept what God announces. The horror of perdition is that God is not there at all. That is why everything good is missing there, because everything good is a gift from God. No one in this world is without a single gift from God. But in perdition it is so.

The end result is what is most important, not what happens at any given point or what it looks like at any given point. That is why, when explaining the Book of Revelation, we should not get so caught up in some of the events and their details that happen before Jesus returns. We should focus on the end result. And we should not be fooled by what the world looks like. The end result is that Jesus wins and the Evil One and his forces are in the flames of damnation. Therefore, the most important thing for us should be that we are on Jesus' side. If we are his, then it is not so important even if we do not understand everything about the Book of Revelation. However, we understand the most important thing. And if the end result is in our mind, we do not want to give up on Jesus, no matter how it looks in the world. We want to go to heaven. And the way to get there is to belong to Jesus until the end.

The Last Judgment 20:11-15

John is shown the last judgment. He sees God on the throne and all people before the Almighty. The book of life is opened and all are judged according to what is written in the book. No one will escape the judgment. In John’s day—as well as long after his time—those who died at sea were buried in the sea. John sees that they too will rise to judgment. Another possibility for interpreting the mention of the sea is that the sea represents death (see Rev. 21:1 and its explanation). The souls of those who have not entered heaven after death have gone to a place that John calls “Death and Hades.” This too will hand over the dead to the final judgment. All mankind will stand before the throne of God and judgment will begin.

John describes the moment we are talking about when we confess our belief in the “resurrection of the body.” When a person dies, the soul and body are separated: the body is placed in the grave, but the soul does not remain there. On the last day, the body and soul will be reunited. We will stand before God in the body that God has given us. On the last day, the same thing will happen to every person as it happened to Jesus on Easter morning. The tomb was emptied and Jesus’ soul was clothed with a resurrection body. Paul speaks more about the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15.

John says that each person will be judged according to their deeds. Does this contradict our saying that those who believe in Jesus will be saved?
There is no contradiction. All people in the world will be judged at the last judgment according to their deeds. No one is sinless and therefore everyone has evil deeds to present to God. Those who are without a Savior will stand before God with their sins and will be judged because of their sins. Those who have the Atonement for sins as their refuge have no sins before God, for all sins have been forgiven because of Jesus. And what God has forgiven, it is no longer in his sight. Thus, only those who in faith owns Jesus and through him the grace of God, will endure before the face of God on the last day.

Paul also said that judgment will be according to works (Romans 2:6: "He will render to each one according to his works"), and yet he taught that only those who trust in Jesus will be saved (for example Romans 10:13: “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” and Romans 8:1 "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.")

Luther spoke of the "blessed exchange." Jesus took upon himself our sins and the punishment we deserved. We gave all this to Jesus. Jesus gave us his own sinlessness, purity, and holiness. When we belong to Jesus, we own all the good that Jesus is and has done. Our own wickedness and our own evil deeds have been given to Jesus. So when God looks at a Christian, he sees only the holiness of his Son and his good works. Thus, Jesus' own people have no bad works for which they would be judged. Instead, they have the good works of Jesus.

Those who come to judgment without a Savior will fare badly. They will not stand before a holy God and will be judged. They will be cast into the lake of fire, the same place where the Devil is. They have been among the Devil's own in this world, and their fate is the same as their master's.