A Brief Glimpse of His Reign-Part 1

      With Satan incarcerated, John records the next thing he sees in Chapter 20. “And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them” (v. 4a). That is, the thrones that were put in place at the rapture as prophesied in Dan. 7:9.
      But that’s not all he sees here. This time he sees the martyrs. Those “who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands.” Since these people were not raptured at the start of the last Day, they had to come to Christ as a result of witnessing the rapture. So they are baby Christians who have finally accepted Jesus as the Messiah. Yet they stood strong in their new-found faith in the face of death.
    They are rewarded accordingly, for they receive an early resurrection, empowering them to reign with Christ and His Body for the rest of the thousand years (v. 4). In a sense, they are grandfathered into the heavenly court, and are blessed to be part of the firstfruits resurrection after the fact. They, too, become part of the holy priesthood (v. 6).
         Any others who die naturally during the millennial reign follow the same pattern as our current time. If they die in Christ, they go to heaven as the dead in Christ do now. But they do not have glorified, immortal bodies yet. They simply have some sort of covering or tent over their spirit that is recognizable  (2 Cor. 5:1). Those who have not yet accepted Jesus when they die will go to Hell as unbelievers do now.
         End-Time Lesson: The rest of Christ’s millennial (1,000-year) reign over the earth confirms both the long-suffering mercy of God and His goodness. It is the closest thing to experiencing a righteous government this fallen world will see. It was foreshadowed in the Old Testament during the time of the Judges. God anointed certain men and women to be His earthly representatives. These judges were set over the people to not only teach the people God’s ways, but to also judge their disputes and keep the peace. 
            So the state of the earth is that Satan and his evil forces are incarcerated. Christ and His Church are  ruling over the earth from Heaven. Yet sin still exists on the earth because mankind still has a fallen spirit. They still have to deal with their pride of life and fallen ways. Just laws are in place, yet people can still choose not to follow them. They can still choose to be their own god, deciding what is right and wrong in their own sight.