"Only the beheaded lived and reigned during the thousand years. This proves it to be a symbol of the past martyr age, for otherwise most of the disciples of Jesus could not reign because they died with their heads on,"-An Adventist in P. T. Messenger, Live Oak, Fla.

Reply: But some Adventists have tried to press this passage into support for the theory that the righteous would be raised before the wicked. Short-sighted and dull-headed are they not?

"There is only one literal resurrection and that is when Jesus comes at the end of the age when all the physically dead will come forth to be judged, then separated and rewarded and punished." - Adventist.

Reply: Yes, that is what the Bible teaches, the teaching of most Adventists to the contrary notwithstanding.

"It is necessary to have a spiritual resurrection before you can have a spiritual reign such as is going on now." - Adventist.

Reply: But most Adventists argue that there is no "reign" now - no throne, no King, no kingdom. But there is a "reign" (I Cor 15:25), a "kingdom" (Mt 16:19; Col 1:13), a King (Heb 2:9; I Cor 15:28), and subjects (Eph 2:19; I Pet 2:9). And Jesus says, "Except a man be born (again, v.8) of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." (John 3:5.) Hence those who did enter into the kingdom (Col 1:12, 13) were born "again," born "of water and the Spirit." And if there is any other than a "spiritual" kingdom, it will be a carnal kingdom: there can be none other. And the Bible does not teach that Christ has, or will have, a carnal reign. Peter had from Christ (Mt 16:16) "the keys of the kingdom," and he used them to admit the Jews on the first Pentecost after the resurrection of Jesus (Acts 2), and to admit the first Gentiles at the house of Cornelius (Acts 10), saying in his defense of this, "Men, brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe." (Acts 15:7)

Other OPA Article Links:

"Thousand Year Reign"

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