“They lived and reigned with Christ.”  It was those who had “part in the first resurrection” that were exalted to this honored position with Christ.  Millenarians always assume that this refers to a literal resurrection at the second coming of Christ, but no such thing is hinted at.  Not one word is said about literally resurrected saints reigning.  John says, “I saw the souls of them which were beheaded for the witness of Jesus ... and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.”  Nothing whatever is said about any reign on earth at all; but the description shows plainly that it was disembodied spirits that were reigning with Christ in Paradise during the period that followed the casting down of the dragon, which was in reality one of long apostasy and darkness on earth.  Before and during this conflict with Paganism the church of God was publicly triumphant on earth.  Afterward, during the apostasy, a false church was, in the public view, triumphant, while the church of God was crowded out of sight into the wilderness.  However, the reign of God’s saints did not cease; for when they were slaughtered by their relentless persecutors and deprived of their reign on earth, they were, as symbolized by the man-child, caught up to God and to his throne and there “lived and reigned with Christ” during the thousand years under consideration.

This same thought concerning the reign of the martyrs in Paradise while the powers of evil triumphed on earth, was brought to view on the opening of the fifth seal in chapter 6:9-11.  “And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:  and they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?  And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were should be fulfilled.”  This quotation will make clear one point concerning the refusal of the martyrs to worship the beast and his image.  We are not to understand that every soul of the martyrs John saw in these visions reigned during the entire period under consideration; but he beheld the reign of the saints above during the one thousand years, and he saw there the souls of all the martyrs—­such as had been slain in the early days of Christianity (chap. 12:11); such as refused to worship the beast and were martyred therefor (chap. 13:7); and also, such as “should be killed as they were” (chap. 6:11) and were put to death shortly after the formation of the image of the beast.  Chap. 13:15; 16:6.