Rapture, Revelation, and the End Times - Conscious Evolution TV

126robin-bobin Rapture, Revelation, and the End Timesto the blessedness that the dead in Christ enjoy as disembodiedsouls during the thousand years, in eternity the righteous willreign in their resurrected bodies forever. Proponents believe thattheir case is strengthened by the precise verb form that John theSeer uses in the text. Both verbs in verse 4 (“lived” and “reigned”)are in what is known in the Greek language in which the NewTestament was written as the aorist tense. Because both verbsare in the same tense, both must be translated in a parallel manner.And because they are aorist, a verb form that rarely refersto the inception of an action, they do not speak of an action thatoccurs at the beginning of the thousand years. Rather, the entireperiod is in view. Consequently, it is incorrect to interpret thefirst verb as indicating an event occurring at the beginning ofthe millennium and the second as a state of being throughoutthe era, as demanded by the premillennial eschatology. The besttranslation of the text, proponents conclude, is simply “theylived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” 28The principle that Revelation 20 must be understood inaccordance with the plain teaching of the New Testament is evidentas well in the amillennial interpretation of the symbol ofthe binding of Satan. The proper understanding of the visionof the thousand years, amillennialists claim, demands a returnto the declaration found elsewhere in the New Testament thatin his ministry Jesus bound his enemy. The Lord himself indicatedthat such an act was necessary for him to release Satan’s captives(Matt. 12:24–29). This claim, in turn, forms the basisfor the theme found repeatedly in the New Testament that in hislife, death, and resurrection Jesus has triumphed over the powerof evil (e.g., Matt. 4:1–11; Luke 9:1, 10:17–20; John 12:31–33;Col. 2:14–15; Heb. 2:14; 1 John 4:8). Even the book ofRevelation gives evidence to the correctness of this interpretation,adherents assert, for the twelfth chapter, which forms thecenter of the book, depicts Christ’s coronation as bringingabout the ejection of Satan from heaven.Premillennialists argue that the binding of Satan must befuture because the devil is obviously active in the world (e.g.,1 Pet. 5:8). In response, amillennialists join postmillennialists inrobin-bobin