Jesus will reign as King of Kings and Lord of Lords for a thousand years in the millennium. All the enemies will have to bow down and worship Him. It is a literal 1,000 years.

There will also be two groups that reign with Him in the millennial kingdom, who are the church age saints and the tribulation saints.

Revelation 20:4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, 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; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

“And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them”

The first part of the passage is talking about us, we Christians would have been raptured before the tribulation.

“and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, 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; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.”

The latter part of the passage which indicates those beheaded, martyred, or persecuted during the tribulation are also reigning together. The tribulation saints would have to do works, resist the mark of the beast in order to live and reign with Christ in the millennium. It requires both faith and works for them to inherit the promises, unlike us Christians saved by faith alone.

Christians endure trials in life for Christ’s sake, so, let’s accept suffering in our Christian life. The tribulation saints have to go through suffering in order to be saved. After the suffering, we will also be judging others including the unsaved souls and the fallen beings in heaven, and reign with Christ Jesus after that. That is so precious – others have to work so hard to become a judge.

Romans 8:17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

1 Corinthians 2:15-16 But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

So this is not something we should be taking for granted, consider it a gift of power by our Lord Jesus Christ, just by accepting Him as our personal savior, we will be entrusted with such a privileged duty and role. So, live for Lord Jesus Christ as much as we can in the remaining years we have. We don’t have much time.

Revelation 20:5-6 But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

“But the rest of the dead“

This is the first resurrection, is referring to the tribulation saints who died and got resurrected.

What is the second Resurrection?

It means the lake of fire, or damnation of hell. How is the second resurrection related to hell?

Daniel 12:2And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

“Some to everlasting life”

These people reign with Christ.

Matthew 25:31-32 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:

“And before him shall be gathered all nations”

There is a judgment of nations. During this judgment, Jesus judges those who died and survived through the tribulation. The context of this involved Jesus coming down to judge all nations (Matthew 25:31), and those who are saved and righteous will inherit everlasting kingdom, and those who are unsaved and unrighteous will be damned in hell for eternity.

According to dispensationalism, this judgment of nations is completely different from what Christians have to face at the Judgment Seat of Christ.

This can cause a bit of confusion because previously tribulation rapture has been mentioned in Revelation 14, which is applicable to tribulation saints who are righteous, so how can both rapture and resurrection of the dead happen at the same time?

According to John’s revelation, these two events simply happen at different timelines that do not necessarily have to match with one another. He sees a group of people resurrected and reigning in the millennium reign at one time; and then a different revelation of another group of saints in the marriage supper of the lamb.

Matthew 24: 30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

Revelation 19:9,14 And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.

So in Revelation 19, we manage to identify that the marriage supper of the Lamb will happen before the millennial reign.

We cannot put these in chronological order.

Matthew 25:1 Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.

Remember 144,000 virgins? They are ready to meet the bridegroom.

You have to wear white garments when you are coming down.

You have to go to the marriage supper before coming down.

You have to be raptured before partaking in the marriage supper of the Lamb.

Then these all make sense once we place the timeline together according to the different chapters in the Bible. That is dispensationalism, and this shows that we should not just base the order of the timeline on one chapter followed by another chapter next to it.

Timelines can go back because it’s prophecy. They’re jumbled up together and not in clean order.

Another example is the following. When Judah was giving a prophecy, he began with the verse which was about Jesus coming to reign again.

Genesis 49: 8, 10 Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy father’s children shall bow down before thee. The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.

Then in verse 11, he goes back 2,000 years because that was when Jesus rode the donkey into Jerusalem.

Genesis 49: 11 Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass’s colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes:

That’s why in prophecy, timeline isn’t in a chronological order.