December 29

Zechariah 14:1-21; Revelation 20:1-15; Psalm 148:1-14; Proverbs 31:8-9

How you holding up? Including today, we’ve got just three days left. Do you have the stamina for a fairly technical post today? If not, go think about something fun to do for New Year’s Eve (and then leave a comment telling me your plans, since I never have any good ideas and feel like our evening is always anticlimactic!) and come back to this post another time.

But if you feel like you can still push through to the finish line, then stay tuned. Today I’m going to do some hefty lifting in Revelation. I mentioned yesterday that I love Revelation and here’s one of the reasons why - when I was in seminary, I took a class called Daniel-Revelation; it’s exactly like it sounds. It explored the themes between Daniel and Revelation. My teacher, an end times expert (or as much as you can be on a topic such as that!), took us through each book, chapter by chapter, showing their parallels and the ways in which John, the author of Revelation, developed the eschatological (that is, "end times") theology that Daniel lays out. Now don’t worry, I’m not going to get that specific here, but in our passage today, John seems to refer to something out of Daniel 12 and I want to draw our attention to it. More on that in a minute.

In today’s New Testament passage, John tells about a vision in which he sees four key things: (1) an angel that binds Satan for 1,000 years; (2) thrones from which Christians reign and judge; (3) Satan being released after the 1,000 years are ended, which results in his final destruction; (4) a great white throne from which Jesus holds the Book of Life and judges the world. Tracking with me so far? This is some seriously prophetic stuff, I know. But I want to draw just one major idea out of today’s reading in Revelation. John seems to be presenting a theology here in Chapter 20 about “first resurrection” and “second death” (Rev. 20:5,6). The first resurrection follows physical death and the second death follows a second resurrection.

Let me say that another away. It seems John assumes all die a “first death” physically and all experience a resurrection physically but in two stages; the first stage of the resurrection is for those who rise to eternal life and the second is for those who will rise to eternal damnation, or a “second” death. Here is the part that refers to Daniel 12. Daniel writes, “At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people…at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found in written in the book. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt” (Dan. 12:1,2). So, when believers die, we are present (i.e., our soul is resurrected) with the Lord but our body remains here on earth; in the second resurrection, when Jesus comes at the end of time, we will rise to join him in our perfectly restored human bodies, for eternal glory.

Sounds pretty good, right? Count me in! As it says in our psalm today, “Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD from the heavens; praise him in the heights! Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his hosts!” (Ps. 148:1-2). God has done, is doing, and will do amazing and incredible things and we get to be a part of it all. Praise the LORD, indeed! And Psalm 148 today tells us that because of what God has done in creation, it’s not just his people who praise him – the highest heavens, waters, sea creatures, mountains, hills, fruit trees, cedars, beasts, livestock, reptiles and bugs, birds, kings, all peoples, princes, all rulers, young men, maidens, old men, children – everyone and everything is called to praise him. “Let them praise the name of the LORD, for his name alone is exalted; his majesty is above earth and heaven” (vs. 13). Amen!

P.S. If you want to learn more about my apocalypse teacher, Dr. Alan Hultberg, check out this article here that he wrote on the rapture.

- Esther McCurry  

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