Resurrection, Rapture, Judgment of Christ’s Saints, and the Millennium; Overview and Scriptures for Self-Study

by deanna reynolds M.D. (ret.), Corpus Christi, Texas

Christians are called to deny self and suffer with Christ during the Church age, the time of His throne of mercy and grace. Only some choose to do so and persevere from one trial to the next, such that they are able to stand before Christ on Judgment Day and be crowned victors.

After years of pressing into the Lord and searching the Scriptures as for hidden treasure (Prov. 2:4) regarding the resurrection, rapture, Christ’s judgment of His saints, and the Millennial kingdom, I am now at yet another point in my understanding sufficiently firm enough to share it here with you all (the previous two series on these matters were Our Exalted Position and Saving Faith is Present Tense and Active – this builds upon and supercedes what I’ve written therein).

So here is an overview of my present understanding of this critically important matter. Please make time to study it out yourself: I’ve provided a few lists of pertinent Scriptures to help, following my overview. It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings. (Prov. 25:2)

Overview of the Resurrection, Rapture, Judgment of Christ’s Saints, and the Millennium

1. This Church age ends at Christ’s parousia, which is Christ’s coming for His Bride AND the time that God’s throne of mercy becomes His throne of judgment. Judgment begins with the family of God (1 Peter 4:17).
2. • First, He resurrects all His saints who have died physical deaths (overcomers and non-overcomers alike). Second, perhaps milliseconds later, of those alive at the time of His parousia, He raptures only His overcomers (firstfruits). This is the first phase of the Bema Seat of Christ (see #6 and 13 below)
3. • Left behind to be tested in the Great Tribulation are both unbelievers and non-overcoming saints (Rev. 3:10).
4. • All unbelievers who repent and receive Christ AND the non-overcoming saints who repent and wash their soiled white robes (Rev. 7:14, 3:4) are raptured at later phases of the Bema seat after they have “ripened”/matured in Christ  (see #8-11 below). These are the Tribulation saints the antichrist is given power to overcome (Dan. 7:21,25; Rev. 13:7): many will die as martyrs.
5. • Everyone who takes the mark of the beast cannot be saved, and will suffer the wrath of God (Rev. 14:9-11). Those remaining alive at the end of the Great Tribulation will be slain by the Word/Sword from Christ’s mouth at His second coming (Rev. 19); they won’t be judged until after the Millennium (see #16 below).
6. At the onset of Christ’s parousia, all the overcoming saints – resurrected and raptured alike – inherit rewards at the Bema seat according to their righteous Holy Spirit-empowered works. Collectively, they are the Bride of Christ, and enter into His Millennial kingdom. All Christians who enter the kingdom are crowned and enthroned to rule and reign with Him 1,000 years.
7. • The  overcoming Christians who died throughout the past 2,000 years are the wise virgins of Rev. 25 who fell asleep. They awaited the Bridegroom with plenty of oil on hand for their lamps, and died before He came for His Bride. They enter into the wedding banquet all at one time at the onset of His parousia, followed perhaps milliseconds later (1 Thess. 4:15,17) by the overcoming Christians who are raptured alive at that time.
8. • The non-overcoming Christians who are alive at the time of Christ’s parousia but who are left behind to “ripen” under the heat of the Tribulation (see #1 above) are the Tribulation saints. They arrive at the Bema seat as different resurrection/rapture “harvests” according to when they are sufficiently “ripened,” whether they are martyred (in which case they are resurrected) or whether they are caught up alive (in which case they are raptured).
9. • • Most of them will constitute the harvest of the great multitude (seen in Rev. 7:9-17), which occurs mid-Tribulation at the seventh trumpet (Rev. 11:15ff, described also in 14:14-16 and 1 Cor. 15:51-52).
10. • • A minority of them will be resurrected/raptured as the gleanings, harvested near the end of the Great Tribulation (alluded to in Rev. 16:15).*
11. • • Having washed their soiled white robes with the blood of the Lamb (Rev. 7:14, 3:4), they likewise will all receive rewards in accordance with their Holy Spirit-empowered works (22:12).
12. • All these saints variously awarded at the Bema seat during His ~7 year parousia constitute the Bride of Christ of Rev. 19:7-8 who has made herself ready with righteous acts; they will descend with Him as the armies of heaven (v. 14) at the end of the Great Tribulation. Then, as blessed and holy participants of the first resurrection, they all will rule and reign with Christ in His kingdom 1,000 years (20:4-6).
13. At the Bema Seat, the resurrected non-overcoming Christians (all of whom will have died physical deaths) are denied access to both the wedding supper and the Millennial kingdom.
14. • They are the foolish virgins of Rev. 25 who fell asleep (died) throughout the past 2,000 years as they each awaited the Bridegroom with an insufficient supply of oil for their lamp. Their works of wood, hay, and straw (1 Cor. 3:12) are burned up by the Word/fire emanating from God’s throne.
15. • Not having died sufficiently to self, they must spend the Millennium outside Christ’s kingdom, enduring what Jesus described first as forfeiture of soul (Matt. 16:26) and then as the second death (Rev. 2:11). These non-overcoming Christians are thus temporarily blotted out of the book of life (Rev. 3:5). Astonishing as this sounds at first, Scripture shows they will be cast down to Hades with the deceased unbelievers already there, and will be punished accordingly (as the sons of God that they are – see Heb. 10:5-11) for 1,000 years. (Read in good translations Luke 12:46-48; John 15:2,6; Ro. 11:21-22; Heb. 10:26-31; & Rev. 20:5a, allowing the Holy Spirit to teach…)
16. When the thousand years are completed, all the dead will be resurrected (from Hades etc.) to be judged at the Great White Throne (Rev. 20:11-15).
17. • The disciplined saints’ names apparently ARE then found in the book of life (note implication in v.15) – they therefore are no longer blotted out as implied for the non-overcomers per Rev. 3:5.
18. • Since the overcomers and Tribulation saints (#2, #4, #8-12 above) constitute the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven (Heb. 12:23), the saints disciplined during the Millennium are the remainder whose names are written therein, thus they join the Lord and His overcomers for eternity as the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21). Hallelujah!

* The resurrection of the two witnesses in Rev. 11:12 and the resurrection of the saints in Matt. 27:50-53 are yet additional and simpler proofs that the common understanding of a single rapture/resurrection of the righteous is proven false as the Scriptures are rightly divided. Paul’s descriptions of the rapture/resurrection in 1 Thess. 4:14-17 and 1 Cor. 15:51-52 do not limit it to a single event in time.

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Be assured that the accountability truths herein and selective nature of multiple raptures/resurrections have been recognized by “multitudes” of early premillennialists – see J. D. Faust’s hefty book The Rod: Will God Spare It? An Exhaustive Study of Temporary Punishment for Unfaithful Christians at the Judgment Seat and During the Millennial Kingdom, Schoettle Publishing Co., Hayesville, N.C., 2002 for an extensive listing of such saints. I’ve personally found Robert Govett’s many writings (1813-1901), D. M. Panton’s writings (1870-1955), and this book by G. M. Lang (1874-1958) to be excellent on these matters, overall rightly dividing the Scriptures.

God willing, I might be writing this in more detail as a series. (Ed.: He was! Click here for link to Part 1 AFTER studying the Scriptures below yourself.) Whether I do or not, may God grant you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation as you make time to study the Scriptures for yourself (many more provided below), with the blessed Holy Spirit as your teacher.

The time is near! May we all produce fruit in keeping with repentance (Matt. 3:8), be always on the watch, be able to escape all that is about to happen, and be able to stand before the Son of Man (Luke 21:36)! Amen.

So very much love in Christ, the Resurrection and the Life, your sister deanna 

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Some Key Scriptures for Studying this Crucial Matter in Depth Yourself

Called to Suffer with Christ (Self-Denial):

• Matt. 16:24-27; Mark 8:34-38; Luke 9:22-26; John 8:39; 12:23-26; Acts 14:22; Ro. 8:17; First Cor. 9:24-27; Phil. 1:29; 3:10-14; Second Thess. 1:5; Second Tim. 1:8b-9a; 2:12; 3:12; James 5:10; First Pet. 2:19-20; 3:14; 4:1-2,16,19; Rev. 2:8-11; 3:7-10; 12:11

Judgment Seat of Christ:

• John 5:22,27; Ro. 14:10-12; Acts 10:42; 17:31; First Cor. 3:13-17; 4:2-5; Second Cor. 5:9-11; Second Tim. 4:1; Heb. 4:12-13

Punishment of God’s Saints:

• Num. Chs. 13 & 14 (esp. 14:20-23, 34-35, 43-45); Prov. 13:24; 23:13-14; Ez. 18:24; Jonah 2:1-10; Matt 5:22; 10:28; 13:40-43; 18:21-23,34-35; 24:45-51; 25:14,24-30; Mark 9:38,43-48; Luke 12:4-5; 41-42,45-48; 21:36; John 15:2,6; Ro. 8:11-14; 11:21-22; First Cor. 3:13,15; 10:1-12; Second Cor. 5:9-11; Gal. 6:7-8; Col. 2:18; 3:25; Second Thess.1:6; First Tim. 5:8; 6:10; Second Tim. 2:12; Heb. 2:1-3 (v.2); 3:12-14; 4:9-11; 6:4-8; 10:19-31; 12:6,9b-11, 16-17; James 5:19-20; Second Peter 2:1-22 (esp. vv. 20-21); Jude 1:5; Rev. 2:11 & 3:5 (note in both the implication for those who don’t overcome, confirmed by these other Scriptural witnesses); 2:21-23; 3:19

Reward of Inheritance:

• Ro. 8:17; Gal. 5:21; Eph. 6:7-8; Col. 3:23-25 (esp. v.25); Second Thess. 1:5; Second Tim. 4:8; Heb. 4:9-11; 6:11-12; 11:5-6 (note the first rapture in Scripture – that of Enoch – is connected with pleasing God by believing He rewards those that diligently seek Him); 12:16-17; Rev. 2:10-11; 2:26; 3:5; 3:10-12; 3:21: 22:21: Matt. 6:20,33; 19:27-30

First Resurrection (Resurrection of the Righteous / THE Resurrection from the Dead / Better Resurrection / Church of the Firstborn):

• Rev. 20:4-6; Luke 14:13-14, 20:35-36; Phil 3:10-14; 2Tim. 2:16-18; Heb 11:35; 12:23

Being Raptured Alive Before the Tribulation is Not a Matter of Salvation but of Being Worthy (includes Watchfulness and pleasing God)

• Luke 21:34-36; Rev. 3:10 (compare with Rev. 3:1-3, and compare 3:3 with 1 Thess. 5:4-6); Heb. 11:5-6 (Enoch was raptured because he pleased God)

Firstfruits, Harvest, and Gleanings:

• Lev. 23:9-22; Ruth Ch. 2
• Regarding firstfruits before the main harvest, note also that Christ came to bring division (Luke 12:49-53): He separated His most mature disciples (those closest to him: Peter, James, and John) from His other disciples on three occasions: to witness the resurrection of Jairus’ daughter, to witness His transfiguration, and to watch and pray nearest Him in Gethsemane.

Link to Part 1