How do you address the change in tenses in Revelation 20?
See the vision
Rev 20:1 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
Rev 20:2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
Rev 20:3 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.
Rev 20:4 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.(past tense)
Rev 20:5 But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This [is] the first resurrection.
Close of Vision...now the explaination of it end of the vision(again past tense)
Beginning of interpretation
Rev 20:6 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. Future tense
Rev 20:7 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, future tense
Rev 20:8 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.Future tense
Rev 20:9 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. A continuation of the interperation
Rev 20:10 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.
Do any premil folks have a thought ?
You asked: "How do you address the change in tenses in Revelation 20?"
I don't interpret it, SCRIPTURE DOES
Now we know that the kingdom of God has been prepared from the beginning for its inhabitants. Like God and Jesus Christ, it was, is, and will be, forever. It is also a transcendent realm, outside of time. Our time frame is meaningless there. Do we agree on that?
There is a key to it, correct? As good disciples of the Lord, you know what this key is. After all, to you are given the understanding of the parables.
The John who wrote Revelation thought in terms of Hebrew theology though he wrote it in Greek. You have to have a very complete understanding of the OT to understand what he is saying.
It would be good if you knew the full implications of the terms the son of man and the Day of the Lord.
The book begins on the Lord's Day and ends with the eucharist. It unfolds in time, but which time exactly? Time is a relative term, do we agree on that?
There's a microcosm and a macrocosm involved, past, present and future and the eternal present.
There's a war waging in heaven right now, do we agree on that? There's a war that did rage and another one that will rage. I suspect if we were outside time, or, in the kingdom, the transcendent realm, the events would seem simultaneous to us on some level. Do we agree on that?
After death, whatever time it takes on earth for one to awaken, the next thing you see will be heaven or hell. When the thief woke up, he was with the Lord, but even on earth, while hanging on the cross, he was saved, safe in Christ and therefore a member of the kingdom. His belief and response to the Lord gained for him, the Presence of God.
The Presence is in the kingdom, do we agree on that? After all, He is the One who rules. You can't have a kingdom without Him. If you are not in the kingdom,if you yourself are not the kingdom, then you must be in hell.
The kingdom and hell co-exist in time, do we agree on that? One has the Presence and one does not. It has Satan as its ruler. We have fought against him, are fighting against him and will fight against him in the future. The Lord says He came to bind the strong man and to plunder his possessions. As long as people are being saved, Satan is bound. The Lord will take as many of us as He wants.
The kingdom was, is and will be, an ongoing process. There are people like the good thief in it, there are people like say, oh I don't know, Woody in it, and there will be people not yet born, in it. Do we agree on that?
A person's response to Christ, who is the gospel, who preached the gospel and who lived the gospel, decides whether they are saved or not. That decision to believe Him, renders them worthy to act as the standard by which the rest of mankind is judged, but in effect, we judge ourselves by our response to Him. Therefore it is possible for the redeemed to share the throne with Him even now, and sit on thrones, now, judging others.
Do you get my drift in all this? Three tenses run throughout the book, not just in Rev 20.