Revelation 20:4 Commentary and Bible Study

Who are these people sitting on thrones, to whom judgment is given? They are those ‘that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus.’ So you have got martyrs here on thrones. Where are the thrones? In the entire Book of Revelation wherever you find thrones mentioned they are in heaven. However it is not just people who were beheaded, but all Christians – the same is true in Revelation 6:9 – because the ‘beheaded’ is defined by the words that follow: ‘and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands.’ That definition covers every Christian. They are the beheaded. In the symbolism of the Book of Revelation you are among the beheaded, because you too have suffered for Christ, and you certainly will continue to do so before you are called home. In some shape or form every Christian suffers some rejection, some hatred, some opposition for the sake of Christ. Elsewhere Scripture teaches that believers will share in some way with Christ in the judgment (1 Corinthians 6:2-3). They will judge both unbelievers and fallen angels. They will be given a wisdom that makes them fit for such a task. Christ will be the Judge of all men, but the saints will concur with the Lord in his every decision and witness his perfect justice.John sees souls. Now this tells us a lot. We ask ourselves the question: when and where can you see souls, without their bodies, of Christian people? Well, first of all, only in heaven. You will only be visible, as it were, as a soul without a body, if you're a Christian when you're in heaven. And there is only one time in history that you will be seeing souls without bodies in heaven – those that have been martyred or have suffered for Christ – and that is now: during the gospel age between the two comings of Christ. Before Christ, though people were saved, they were hardly witnesses and martyrs in any sense for Christ. And after Christ comes again, all the redeemed, as we shall learn, will receive their resurrection bodies, so there won't be any more souls without bodies. So this verse explains exactly what the thousand years is and when it is. Futurist interpreters are determined to see the millennium as a reign of Christ on earth with his saints, but nothing is said here about a reign on earth. Nowhere does the text tell us that Christ reigns on earth, and the souls of the saints cannot be dwelling on earth. This whole scene takes place in heaven.Believers are defined again in terms of their refusal to worship the beast or to receive his mark. This issue is so clear to them that they have been willing to lay down their lives rather than submit to the corruption of their faith.