Systematic Theology, by Louis Berkhof - New Leaven

which will occur only after some time, so that it is a pure assumption that the
resurrection of believers will be separated by a long period of time from the end.
Another gratuitous assumption is that “the end” means “the end of the resurrection.”
According to the analogy of Scripture it points to the end of the world, the
consummation, the time when Christ will deliver up the kingdom to the Father and will
have put all enemies under His feet. This is the view adopted by such commentators as
Alford, Godet, Hodge, Bachmann, Findley, Robertson and Plummer, and Edwards. 34
d. Another passage to which the Premillenarians appeal is I Thess. 4:16, “For the
Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel,
and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first.” From this they infer
that those who did not die in Christ will be raised up at a later date. But it is perfectly
clear that this is not the antithesis which the apostle has in mind. The statement
following is not, “Then the dead who are not in Christ shall arise,” but, “Then we that
are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the air: and so shall we
ever be with the Lord.” This is frankly admitted by Biederwolf. 35 Both in this passage
and in the preceding one Paul is speaking of the resurrection of believers only; that of
the wicked is not in his purview at all.
e. The most important passage to which the Premillenarians refer is Rev. 20:4-6:...
“and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. The rest of the dead lived not
until the thousand years should be finished. This is the first resurrection.” Here the
verses 5 and 6 make mention of a first resurrection, and this, it is said, implies that there
will be a second. But the supposition that the writer is here speaking of a bodily
resurrection is extremely dubious. The scene in the verses 4-6 is evidently laid, not on
earth, but in heaven. And the terms employed are not suggestive of a bodily
resurrection. The seer does not speak of persons or bodies that were raised up, but of
souls which “lived” and “reigned.” And he calls their living and reigning with Christ
“the first resurrection.” Dr. Vos suggests that the words, “This (emphatic) is the first
resurrection,” may even be “a pointed disavowal of a more realistic (chiliastic)
interpretation of the same phrase.” 36 In all probability the expression refers to the
entrance of the souls of the saints upon the glorious state of life with Christ at death.
The absence of the idea of a double resurrection may well make us hesitate to affirm its
34 For a further discussion of this whole point cf. Salmond, Christian Doctrine of Immortality, pp. 414 f.;
Milligan, The Resurrection of the Dead, pp. 64 ff.; Vos, Pauline Eschatology, pp. 241 ff.
35 Millennium Bible, p. 472.
36 ISBE, Art. Esch. of the N. T.
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