Revelation 20 – REIGNING with Christ, as exhibited in the Gospel, is a reality. Popular hymns talk of reigning with Christ, but what do they mean? They know not. A mere subsistence of delight – a passive ecstasy, in which they drowsily float in the ethereal clouds of “the happy land” – a bathing in the blue and brightness of heaven – an imaginary bliss. This is not the Bible “reigning with Christ” – though the Bible reigning with Christ will have all the happiness about it that was ever imagined in connection with the orthodox heaven. The Bible reigning with Christ is a regulating of human affairs as they ought to be regulated: a guiding of mankind with power into ways of enlightenment and righteousness, joy and peace, in the then present time, with an unbounded prospect of eternal day beyond. Such a reigning with Christ is exactly adapted to meet the wants of the afflicted human race who will be blessed by it, and to give scope to the noble aspirations and benevolent ambitions of those who will be called upon to take part in it.

ROBERT ROBERTS, Thirteen Lectures on the Apocalypse, page 198.

Revelation

20And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season. 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. 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. And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog, and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.