Resurrection - Revelation 20

20:1-3 - After the remaining of the wicked are slain, “an angel (will) come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand,” and will bind Satan and his followers “a thousand years.” A significant teaching that is implied from this statement is explained by the IM saying, “’The bottomless pit’ is a term for the realm of Satan and those who follow him. Even there, God holds supreme authority, for it is God’s angel who has ‘the key to the bottomless pit.’” I’ve often wondered what exactly it means for Satan to be “bound” for 1,000 years and honestly, my question has always been, if he could be bound then, why couldn’t he just have always been bound, why let him go at all? Ever since I thought it through a couple of weeks ago to where for whatever reason, Satan has to be allowed to do his stuff here now because if it wasn’t absolutely necessary, then it would just make God cruel to let him do it anyway. I think that’s always been one of my problems with the whole thing, I’ve always thought that God allowed Satan to do crazy things on earth because He lost a bet or something, but now I understand that this isn’t the case and that indeed there was no other way. The IM has a picture of a lamb and a lion snuggling together in a field, which brings up some interesting questions, such as what physical state will people and animals be in during the millennium because animals eat each other for survival and because we live in a fallen world. We know that in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve and the animals existed in an immortal state, but not the glorified resurrected one, so the animals survived on plants just like Adam and Eve did. So this picture of the lamb and the lion together implies that during the millennium not only will Satan’s tempting power be suspended, but that the fallen world that also resulted because of Satan’s influence will also revert back to how it was before he tainted it. It’s interesting to think about just exactly what that world would look like. There are a lot of things that I can’t relate to because I haven’t personally experienced them, such as my kids loving our dogs so much. I didn’t have pets growing up, so while I like my dogs now, I don’t relate to what it’s like to be a kid and have dogs be such a big part of my life. Anyway, it will just be interesting to see if I can see a lamb and lion snuggling in the grass without having my mind blown when it happens. But how is the binding accomplished exactly? There is a vague, yet insightful answer in the IM from President Joseph F. Smith saying, “As to whether the binding of Satan is a literal binding as with a chain or not, it matters not. I am inclined to believe that the chain spoken of in the Bible, with which Satan is to be bound, is more figurative than real. (Satan) will be bound both by the faith of the righteous and the decrees of the Almighty during the Millennial reign and will be cast down into hell.” The IM also says, “John saw that Satan would be bound at the beginning of the Millennium and that for a thousand years he would ‘deceive the nations no more’ or, as a modern revelation states, ‘not have the power to tempt any man.’ During this time, ‘children shall grow up without sin unto salvation.’” This is another interesting concept that circles back to “why them and not me?” Why did/do I have to suffer when other people don’t? The more I think about this dynamic, it makes me wonder if living on this earth during Satan’s time here is something that maybe we had to agree to and be specifically prepared for in the pre-mortal life. That’s interesting to think about. 20:4-6 - Satan is locked away in his pit for 1,000 years and John sees others sitting on thrones, “and judgment was given unto them.” The IM suggests that this might be twelve apostles who were told they would judge Israel. When I read about this back in Book of Mormon study years ago, I had a little melt down because I had just gotten to the point where I trusted Jesus and Him only. So the thought of finally learning to allow Jesus into my life only to have some other guy be able to tell me I’m not good enough was too much for me. What I eventually decided was that in the process of perfection, we don’t need to have “final” judgments with Jesus unless we have a fullness of knowledge and wish to say “no thank you” like the sons of perdition. If we are on the path of progression, then it seems to me that the twelve apostles would more likely serve as “judges” in the same way that bishops serve as common judge in Israel. I imagine that there will be an organizational structure of the church then just like now, probably better, and that the apostles will be leaders in that organization. So the word “judgment” here might sound a little harsher than it is, and they might be more in the capacity of “leadership” than “he who shows misfits the door.” Not only will “they” sit in judgment, but there will also be a place for those who “had not worshipped the beast… and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” So it sounds like it won’t only be mortals in leadership positions during the millennium, but also the resurrected righteous. In kind of a round about way, John explains “the first resurrection.” As far as I understand it, the righteous will be resurrected and “shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.” But the “rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.” This has always been a question that I’ve had, what, when, and where the dividing lines are for the resurrection. Throughout human history, the vast majority have not had the opportunity to accept the gospel or have declined to do so for whatever reason. So when the time comes for the first resurrection, there will be literally billions of people who haven’t had ordinances done for them either personally or vicariously, but were good people, so what of them? From what I understand, this is why there is a “morning” and an “afternoon” of the first resurrection. The IM quotes Bruce R. McConkie as explaining, “To those who lived before the resurrection of Christ, the day of his coming forth from the dead was known as the first resurrection. Abinadi and Alma, for instance, so considered it.” So this might mean that after Jesus was resurrected, those worthy of the celestial and terrestrial kingdoms were resurrected, which is interesting considering that the flood was before Jesus’ time too. The IM continues the quote, saying, “To those who have lived since that day, the first resurrection is yet future and will take place at the time of the Second Coming. We have no knowledge that the resurrection is going on now or that any persons have been resurrected since the day in which Christ came forth excepting Peter, James, and Moroni, all of whom had special labors to perform in this day which necessitated tangible resurrected bodies.” What struck me as interesting in that statement is that John the Baptist isn’t mentioned, even though we know that he also performed a work during the restoration that necessitated a body. But then I remembered that unlike James, Peter, and Moroni, who died after Jesus was resurrected, John died before, so he would have come forth in the 1st “First resurrection.” So when Jesus comes the second time, the “morning” of the first resurrection will happen, and I think that will include all those who have accepted the gospel including those who did so on the other side of the veil, so celestial headed people. Then the “afternoon” of the first resurrection, which I don’t know exactly what time that will be, but still at the beginning of the millennium, comes and this might include those who are good people but who haven’t accepted the gospel yet, or who just aren’t as gung-ho about the gospel as the others. I wonder if there is some sort of “service” commitment required to be part of the “celestial” group. Not like “ok fine, I’ll help others in order to get into this club,” but kind of like how the Church is now, where people take callings and help others where they can because they love Jesus and want others to be happy. By the time the millennium is officially underway, I believe that all those who “want” to participate in the kingdom righteously will be resurrected, and only “the rest of the dead” will have to wait for resurrection until after the 1,000 years of Jesus’ reign. I wonder why that is? During the millennium, I think that both the mortal and the resurrected will live and work together side by side, which has led me to assume that there would be no veil between mortality and the after-life but maybe that’s not the case. In fact, it makes a lot more sense that the wicked will remain as spirits during the millennium, because then they can remain on the other side of the veil in the spirit world while the mortals and the resurrected are busy doing God’s work. The spirits being in the spirit world makes sense on a couple of different levels. First, they wouldn’t be around to influence mortals to act wickedly. Second, they could continue on their own personal paths to repentance. After the millennium, then the rest will be resurrected, both the telestial and sons of perdition. 20:7-10 - After the millennium, “Satan shall be loosed out of his prison.” Again, my only question, always, is WHY? Why can’t we just give him the boot permanently? I had a church teacher once postulate that for the first 600+ years of the millennium, the people would be righteous, so Satan would be bound that way. But then after that time, when everyone started being prosperous, etc. that people would become corrupted and that’s how Satan would be “loosed” from his prison and then slowly over the next 400 or so years, the people would become progressively more wicked until Satan had all his power back. At the time I thought, “wrong!” but now it makes more sense and it is the more reasonable approach to that situation without it being completely manufactured and manipulated by the seeming “catch and release” of binding and loosing Satan. Satan is again granted influence on the earth and he convinces a bunch of people to, again, fight against Jesus and His people. This time, instead of letting it go on for thousands of years, “fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone.” Of course, we know that “hell” isn’t real, and there are no places that God sends us to be miserable, but he will allow us to not be happy if that’s the choice that we make. The IM quotes the Prophet Joseph Smith as teaching, “A man is his own tormentor and his own condemner. Hence the saying, They shall go into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone. The torment of disappointment in the mind of man is as exquisite as a lake burning with fire and brimstone.” No one needs an overseer in misery, we can do that just fine all by ourselves. 20:11-15 – Jesus is sitting on “a great white throne” as he judges “the dead, small and great.” Assuming this is after the second resurrection, so all those who are getting perfected bodies have them, this is where the great judgment comes in and I don’t know if seeing Jesus sit in the throne and judge is symbolic as far as those who are on the pathway to perfection through repentance or if there will actually be that meeting with Jesus as a sort of “graduation” type of event. All people are resurrected and judged “and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”