Why I am a Post-Millennialist

[seeking the lost]

11 hours ago, Marcus O'Reillius said:

That is a restricted reading.

Now when comparing the epilogue of Revelation, after the one 'seven' is finished at Armageddon, we can go to the broad overview in chapters 4-11 (exclusive), where with the Seals we find the Martyrs in the fifth Seal who must wait until their number is complete.  That is fulfilled by the death and taking up of the Two Witnesses coincidental with the end of the one 'seven' in the sidebar excluded from the broad overview in 11:1-13.

The resurrection of the Dead in Christ Paul alludes to in 1Th 4:16, along with the Rapture of those who remain and are left after the Great Tribulation nearly wipes out the Elect, are reflected in the Great Multitude arrayed the Father in Heaven in His Temple with the passage of the Day of the Lord, which begins at the sixth Seal.

The Great Multitude is heard cheering on our Champion, Jesus, on the eve of the final battle of the one 'seven' in Revelation chapter 19.

So, it is NOT "only those that are raised to reign with Christ" - but the final addition to the Great Multitude who DO reign with Jesus as Priests for the Millennium.

If they have been martyrs they will be raised to reign.  These are the number and they may include those you are referring to but there is not a separate resurrection for them at another time.  This is the First Resurrection, I take this literally.  This means that there were no resurrections before it.

[seeking the lost]

11 hours ago, Marcus O'Reillius said:

Well, I think you've subtracted from the Word...  Sorry the first Resurrection, before the Millennium, mentioned six times but not to be added sequentially, and the only time we find that is in Revelation chapter 20.

Revelation 20 is a very defining WORD.  First is First.  Rest of the dead is everybody else.

[Marilyn C]

38 minutes ago, seeking the lost said:

Revelation 20 is a very defining WORD.  First is First.  Rest of the dead is everybody else.

Hi seeking the lost,

Just popped in to say that I see God`s word tells us -

1. The first resurrection is to life, (these people resurrected at different times, will NOT be judged)

2. The `other, second, last, resurrection is to judgment. (these people come up from the dead and go to the great white throne. If their name is not in the book of life they will go to the lake of fire, the second death.)

Marilyn.

[Marcus O'Reillius]

4 hours ago, seeking the lost said:

Revelation 20 is a very defining WORD.  First is First.  Rest of the dead is everybody else.

Context, context, context.  It's missing in your viewpoint.  Those made alive are the Martyrs; the martyrs are not all who are part of the First Resurrection.

[Marcus O'Reillius]

4 hours ago, seeking the lost said:

If they have been martyrs they will be raised to reign.  These are the number and they may include those you are referring to but there is not a separate resurrection for them at another time.  This is the First Resurrection, I take this literally.  This means that there were no resurrections before it.

No, John does not PRONOUNCE the First Resurrection as a statement of FACT until ALL who are part - are made alive in new, immortal, and imperishable bodies - like the Great Multitude who are raised with the sixth Seal's Day of the Lord before the fifth Seal Martyrs number is completed with the Two Witnesses.

[Marcus O'Reillius]

4 hours ago, seeking the lost said:

Jesus said the tares are the first ones gathered out at the time of the harvest.  For you to say that Paul said we are to be saved before the coming wrath does not square with that. .

Sure it does, but not if you read an English translation which confuses the two words. 

The wheat is GATHERED.
The tares are COLLECTED.

Check your Greek.  They're different verbs.

The WHEAT is GATHERED to the barn of Heaven and then the TARES are collected to be burned in the field of this WORLD.

[Marcus O'Reillius]

4 hours ago, seeking the lost said:

The first for the living and then for the dead, which you mention, does not even come close to the nature of a resurrection.  The first resurrection as described in Revelation 20 is of people who have had there heads removed and I think that is a resurrection of dead people.

And that small part, which you myopically focus on to the exclusion of anything else, is not all there is to the nature of the Resurrection of the Dead in Christ ~ who also include OT and NT Saints who did not lose their head when they died.

[Marcus O'Reillius]

4 hours ago, seeking the lost said:

 The words of the Revelation describes the first resurrection at the end of the tribulation and the beginning of the millennium.  

You are using "tribulation" for the one 'seven'.  The Great Tribulation as defined by Jesus in Mt 24 is not the same as the one 'seven' in Daniel 9:27.

The Resurrection of the Dead in Christ (not Martyrs) happens on the Day of the Lord before God's Wrath comes in the second half of the one 'seven.'

[seeking the lost]

9 hours ago, Marcus O'Reillius said:

Sure it does, but not if you read an English translation which confuses the two words. 

The wheat is GATHERED.
The tares are COLLECTED.

Check your Greek.  They're different verbs.

The WHEAT is GATHERED to the barn of Heaven and then the TARES are collected to be burned in the field of this WORLD.

No doubt the Greek is correct.  It is the order that is important.  Tares are collected and  burned first.  After this the wheat is gathered. 

[Daniel 11:36]

The wheat and tares gathering will not take place until the end of the millennial reign of Jesus on the earth

All of those with no relationship to the Lord [the tares] will be eliminated at the time and all who do have [the wheat] will enter His eternal kingdom