Only the names of the faithful will be retained in the book of life. The names of those who do not endure until the end will be blotted out (ch. 3:5). Many never had their names recorded there, for the book contains only the names of those who at some time in their lives professed faith in Christ (see on Luke 10:20).

 See on v. 10. Compare Matt. 25:41, 46; Rev. 21:8.

Note 1

 Rev. 20:5 presents a certain textual problem. The clause, “But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished,” is not found in certain manuscripts. This has raised a question as to the genuineness of this passage. Following is an examination of the textual evidence that bears on this problem.

There are six principal uncial witnesses for the book of Revelation:

 (1) the Chester Beatty Papyri from the 3d century, designated P, our oldest substantial witness to the book, and a few papyrus fragments,

 (2) the Sinaiticus (designated א ) from the 4th century,

 (3) the Alexandrinus (designated A) from the 5th century,

 (4) the Ephraemi Rescriptus (designated C) from the 5th century,

 (5) the Porfirianus (designated P) from the 9th or 10th century, and

 (6) a Vatican manuscript sometimes designated B, but to be distinguished from the Codex Vaticanus of the 4th century consistently designated B. The book of Revelation has been lost from the Codex Vaticanus, so the deficiency has been supplied by substituting an 8th-century manuscript variously designated, Vatican gr. 2066, 046, or a 1070.

Besides these uncial witnesses are a host of minuscule manuscripts of comparatively late date.

 It should be noted that these ancient manuscripts are not all complete. Some of the leaves are entirely missing and others have become mutilated. Sometimes whole sections are missing. For example, as just noted, the whole of the book of Revelation has been lost from the Codex Vaticanus. The Chester Beatty Papyri of Revelation contain only the section from chs. 9:10 to 17:2, with certain lines missing in the extant leaves. The witness of these important uncials as far as ch. 20:5 is concerned is therefore unknown. The same is true of the witness of Ephraemi Rescriptus (C) and that of Porfirianus (P), for the entire twentieth chapter is missing form C, and the first nine verses of the chapter from P. This section of Revelation is also missing from certain minuscules.

The Peshitta version—early 5th century—never contained the books of 2 Peter, 2 John, 3 John, Jude, or the Revelation, because the Syrian church did not recognize them as canonical. The text of the Revelation appearing in modern printed editions of the Peshitta since 1627 was borrowed from a later Syriac translation known as the Harkleian.

Therefore, the genuineness of the clause in question must be evaluated on the basis of the remaining witnesses, which are comparatively few in number. In fact, the ancient witnesses to the book of Revelation are much fewer in number than those of the Gospels, Acts, or Pauline epistles.

Of those manuscripts that contain this section of Revelation the clause, “But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished,” is omitted in the Sinaiticus (א), a number of minuscules, and the Syriac versions. It is found in the Alexandrinus (A) and in 046, and in a large number of minuscules. The process whereby the genuineness of a reading is determined is too complex to be here discussed, but on the basis of the evidence available scholars generally accept, as genuine, the clause here under discussion. For this reason it appears in the majority of the translations. The fact that some translators place the passage in parentheses does not mean that they necessarily doubt the genuineness of the reading; they may simply regard it as parenthetical.

 It is pointed out that the entire passage reads along coherently if the clause in question is omitted, especially if the last part of v. 4 is translated, “they came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years,” which translation the syntax of the Greek permits. However, such a consideration alone is not the basis for deciding the genuineness of a particular passage. An author must not be denied the privilege of introducing a parenthetical idea into an otherwise smoothly flowing line of thought.

 There is no contextual problem in the disputed clause, for what is said in this clause is clearly implied in the context, especially when related scriptures are studied. The Bible speaks of two main resurrections—that of the just, and that of the unjust (see John 5:28, 29; Acts 24:15). That of the just is clearly set forth as occurring in connection with the second coming of Christ (see 1 Thess. 4:13-17). In Rev. 20:4 the statement is made concerning certain classes that they “lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” This clause should be translated as noted above, “they came to life and reigned with

 Christ a thousand years.” Thus translated, the clause “this is the first resurrection” (v. 5) connects logically with v. 4. When the author calls this the “first” resurrection, he clearly implies a “second.” Since the wicked are all slain at the second coming of Christ (ch. 19:21), and since they are represented as attacking the city at the end of the millennium (ch. 20:8, 9), it follows that they must have been raised. Thus the second resurrection at the end of the thousand years is clearly implied in the context.

Note 2

 The thousand-year period commonly called the millennium is mentioned in the Bible only in Rev. 20. The word “millennium,” which means simply, “thousand years,” is not a scriptural term, but the expression “thousand years” occurs six times in vs. 1-7.

Commentators differ widely in their understanding of the millennium.

This Additional Note proposes to set forth Bible reasons for the position held by Seventh-day Adventists and to show why Adventists regard as untenable certain other positions that have been advanced.

 The Second Advent of Christ Précedes the Millennium.—That the second advent precedes the millennium is clear from the fact that the narrative of Rev. 19 and 20 is continuous. The second advent is symbolically portrayed in ch. 19:11-21, and the narrative is carried on without a break into ch. 20, which discusses the millennial period. The continuity of narrative is clearly demonstrated by the interrelation of events. The three great powers that will oppose the work of Christ and gather the kings of the earth to battle immediately prior to the advent are identified as the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet (ch. 16:13). According to ch. 19:19, when “the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies” assemble to make war with Christ at the time of His advent, the beast and the false prophet are taken and cast alive into a lake burning with fire and brimstone (vs. 20, 21). The narrative of ch. 20 proceeds to show the fate of the third member of the trio, the dragon, who is seized and cast into the bottomless pit, where he remains for 1000 years.

 Any definition or description of the millennium must be based on the framework of the millennial doctrine set forth in chs. 19 and 20, for this is the only Scripture passage that deals directly with this doctrine.

 Christ’s Enemies Slain at the Second Advent.—When the beast and the false prophet are cast into the lake of fire (Rev. 19:20), “the remnant” (v. 21), or “the rest,” of their followers are slain by the sword of Christ. These are the kings, captains, mighty men, and “all men, both free and bond” (v. 18). The same classes are mentioned under the sixth seal, as seeking to hide from the face of the Lamb (ch. 6:14-17) when the heavens depart as a scroll and every mountain and island is moved. Obviously these scriptures depict the same earth-shattering event, the second advent of Christ.

 How many are involved in the death of “the remnant” (ch. 19:21)? According to ch. 13:8 there will be only two classes on earth at the time of the advent: “all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him [the beast], whose names are not written in the book of life.” It is evident, therefore, that when “the remnant” are “slain with the sword” (ch. 19:21), there are no survivors except those who have withstood the beast, namely, those who are written in the book of life (ch. 13:8). Before mentioning that this group enters upon its millennial reign (ch. 20:4), John relates how the third great enemy, the dragon, will begin to receive his retribution (vs. 1-3).

 The Righteous Dead Raised at the Second Advent.—The Bible sets forth two resurrections, that of the just and that of the unjust, separated by a period of 1000 years (see on Rev. 20:1, 4, 5). There cannot be one general resurrection, for there is a resurrection to which apparently not all attain (Phil. 3:11; cf. Luke 14:14; 20:35. The just are elsewhere described as “they that are Christ’s at his coming” 1 Cor. 15:23). Some hold that Rev. 20:4 describes only the Christian martyrs. However, a comparison with other scriptures shows that all the righteous, including the OT saints (see on Rom. 4:3; 1 Cor. 15:18) and the living righteous, immortalized at the time (1 Cor. 15:51-54), ascend to be with Christ at the second advent (see on 1 Thess. 4:16, 17).

 There is no valid scriptural basis for separating the “blessed and holy” ones, who have withstood the persecution of the beast, from the immortal saints mentioned in 1 Thess. 4 and 1 Cor. 15.

The Unity of the Second Advent.—The various Biblical references to the second advent combine to portray as a single event the coming of Christ to gather up His saints and to destroy their persecutors. The main references may be summarized as follows:

 1. Matt. 24:29-31. The coming of Christ will be visible, “in the clouds of heaven,” “after the tribulation.” Jesus will send His angels “with a great sound of a trumpet” to “gather together his elect.”

 2. 1 Cor. 15:23, 51-53. They “that are Christ’s at his coming”—both resurrected dead and living—receive immortality when “the trumpet shall sound.”

 3. 1 Thess. 4:15-17. The Lord descends “with the trump of God” to resurrect and catch up “the dead in Christ,” together with those who “are alive and remain” until the day of His coming. They are caught up “in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air,” to “ever be with the Lord.”

 4. 2 Thess. 1:6-8. The church’s “rest” from persecution comes when Christ is “revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire”to punish those who “obey not the gospel.”

 5. 2 Thess. 2:1-3, 8. The “gathering together unto him [Christ],” concerning which the Thessalonians were troubled, will not come until after the “falling away” and the revealing of “that Wicked [the Antichrist]” who will be destroyed “with the spirit of his [Christ’s] mouth” and “the brightness of his coming.”

 6. Rev. 1:7. His coming will be “with clouds,” and visible to “every eye.”

 7. Rev. 14:14-20. When Christ comes He will reap a double harvest—the righteous and the unrighteous.

 8. Rev. 19:11 to 20:6. At His coming, symbolized as a warrior accompanied by the armies of heaven, Christ casts the persecuting “beast” and “false prophet” into the lake of fire, and slays the rest of His enemies with the sword “out of his mouth.” An angel binds Satan. The faithful—resurrected dead and living—are rewarded; they reign “with Christ a thousand years.”

These Scripture references agree in picturing the glorious return of the Lord as one single, visible event. They show that this one event will accomplish

 (1) the gathering up of the saints immortal from the earth to be with Him, obviously in the heavenly “mansions” in the place that Christ has gone to prepare for them (John 14:2, 3), and

 (2) the slaying of the persecutors of the last generation, with all the unrighteous, by the consuming glory of His coming.

 Thus it is evident that when the millennium begins, all human beings have either been taken to heaven in immortality or have been left dead on the desolated earth. It is this depopulation of the earth that binds Satan (see on Rev. 20:1, 2). He is unable to reach the redeemed and powerless to deceive his own human subjects until they live again at the end of the “thousand years” (v. 5).

Mistakenly Basis of Belief in Earthly Millennium.—Some hold that the millennium will be a period of righteousness, peace, and prosperity on earth. They arrive at this concept largely from applying to the millennium, either literally or figuratively, the prophecies of restoration and of the kingdom given to ancient Israel in the OT. The premillennialists belonging to this group apply these prophecies literally to either a churchly or a Jewish world kingdom in a future millennium after the second coming. The postmillennialists apply these same predictions to a future churchly golden age before the second advent. A third group, the amillennialists, reduce the OT portrayals of the kingdom offered to ancient Israel to mere allegories of the victories of the church in the gospel dispensation.

The fallacy of these three positions is twofold:

 (1) None of these positions fits the specifications laid down in Rev. 19:11 to 20:15, the primary Scripture passage dealing with the millennium. This passage shows plainly that there will be no living human being on the earth during that period (see above; cf. on ch. 20:1). Hence, the millennium cannot be a period of righteousness, peace, and prosperity on earth.

 (2) These positions are based on a false concept of the nature of OT prophecies.

 For example, many premillennialists hold the view that these kingdom prophecies are literal and unalterable decrees that must yet be fulfilled to literal Israel, that is, to the Jews (for the term “Israel” as applied to Jews of any tribe see on Acts 1:6). This mistaken belief has resulted in a system known as futurism (see p. 129), which, instead of regarding the Christian church as the inheritor of the promises made to Israel, considers the Christian age a “parenthesis” in prophecy, that is, as filling up the gap until the ancient prophecies concerning Israel will in the future be literally fulfilled (cf. p. 129).

 Interpreters of this school apply the greater part of the predictions of Revelation principally to the Jews, and believe that these predictions will be fulfilled in what they call the “end time.” They expect the OT kingdom prophecies given to Israel to be fulfilled during the millennium. They divide up sacred history into dispensations, or periods, in which the “church age” is regarded as an interim dispensation of grace between past and future Jewish ages of law. This division into dispensations logically requires a “pretribulation rapture” (see on 1 Thess. 4:17) in order to remove the Christian saints from the earth before the Jewish “tribulation period.” These interpreters hold further that the surviving Jews will accept Christ when He appears in the clouds after the tribulation; then, with the surviving “nations” they will enter the millennium, and while still mortal, will live on a partly renovated earth. At this time, according to this view, the Jews will enjoy not only material prosperity and long life but also the restored Davidic kingdom, a restored temple and “commemorative” sacrificial system, the law, the Sabbath, political world dominion, enforcement of Christ’s “rod-of-iron rule” over submissive but finally rebellious nations—all this in an earthly millennial kingdom, while the Christian saints are reigning with Christ in immortality.

 Following are some of the principles of OT prophetic interpretation overlooked by those who reserve the OT kingdom prophecies for the Jews of a future age (see Vol. IV, pp. 25-38; see on Deut. 18:15).

 1. The promises to ancient Israel were conditional. God said, “If ye will obey ..., then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people” (Ex. 19:5; cf. Deut. 7; 8; 27-30; Jer. 18:6-10; see Vol. IV, p. 34).

 2. National Israel failed to meet the conditions, hence lost the kingdom and the promises. When Christ, the Son of David, came, and the Jewish nation rejected her King, she lost the kingdom (see on Matt. 21:43; cf. on Rev. 20:1).

 3. The Christian church, “spiritual Israel,” is now the inheritor of the promises.

 The failure of literal Israel does not mean that “the word of God hath taken none effect” (Rom. 9:6). When national Israel was cut off, like dead branches, from the true stock of Abraham, the true Israel was then the faithful Jewish remnant that accepted the Messiah (see on Rom. 11:5), and to these Jewish Christians were added the Gentile Christians, grafted into the original stock. Thus the tree now includes the spiritual children of Abraham (Gal. 3:16, 26-29), namely, the Christian church.

 Paul says that “all Israel shall be saved” (Rom. 11:26), but he makes it abundantly clear that “all Israel” does not mean all the Jews (see comment there). He excludes the mere “children of the flesh” and includes only “the children of the promise” (Rom. 9:6-8). To these he joins those Gentiles that have the true, spiritual circumcision, which comes from Christ (Rom. 2:26, 28, 29; Col. 2:11; see on Rom. 11:25, 26; Phil. 3:3). He says specifically that non-Jews saved by the grace of Christ are no longer strangers and foreigners to “the commonwealth of Israel” and “the covenants of promise,” but are “fellowcitizens with the saints” (Eph. 2:8-22). In spiritual Israel “there is neither Jew nor Greek,” but in Christ all are one (Gal. 3:28).

 Paul applies to “all the seed,” Jewish and Gentile Christians, the promise of the kingdom (see on Rom. 4:13, 16). Peter quotes, almost verbatim, the key passage (Ex. 19:5, 6) that promises Israel the status of a chosen people, a holy nation, a “kingdom of priests,” and applies it to non-Jewish Christians. This shows that he regards the Christian church as heir of the special status formerly held by disobedient Israel (see on 1 Peter 2:5-10). John twice uses a phrase that seems to allude to this same Exodus passage: “a kingdom, priests,” “a kingdom, and priests” (see on Rev. 1:6; 5:10), showing that he makes a similar application of that kingdom promise to the church—not only to the future church triumphant but also to the Christians of Asia Minor. For other examples of inspired NT applications of some of Israel’s promises and prophecies to the church in apostolic times see Acts 2:16-21; 13:47; 15:13-17.

 4. Prophecies originally literal may be fulfilled spiritually to “spiritual Israel” in this age and transcendently in the world to come. The NT applications show that prophecies given literally to ancient Israel may have a nonliteral fulfillment for the church under the new conditions in the Christian age and a final fulfillment, without the elements of mortality, in the eternal kingdom.