In this week’s study, I continue in Chapter 20; however I continue to discuss the First Resurrection. Before I get into the study, I talk about Rabbi Levi Slonim who gave an opening prayer at the White House Congress. I talk about his mentor Rabbi Menachem Schneerson, who in 1990 ask Benjamin Netanyahu, “to hurry up and bring in the Messiah”. This Rabbi is also a follower of the Kabbalah, which is a type of Jewish Mysticism. I then compare the writings of Freemasonry to Kabbalah.
In our last study as we continue in Chapter 20 with verses 14 thru 6, we read about the First Resurrection. In this study, I would like to go into the First Resurrection some more.
6 a thousand years. = "This is the first resurrection"; or, this completes the first resurrection. There is an Ellipsis of the verb in this sentence; and we may supply completes, having in mind the several resurrections which shall before then have taken place.
Before I go any further allow me to explain what an ‘Ellipsis’ is. El-lip´-sis. This is the Greek word ἔλλειψις, a leaving in, from ἐν (en) in, and λείπειν (leipein) to leave.
'The figure of speech is called, because some gap is left in the sentence, which means that a word or words are left out or omitted.
The figure is a peculiar form given to a passage when a word or words are omitted; words which are necessary for the grammar but are not necessary for the sense. The laws of geometry declare that there must be at least three straight lines to enclose a space. So the laws of syntax declare that there must be at least three words to make complete sense, or the simplest complete sentence. These three words are variously named by grammarians. In the sentence “Thy word is truth,” “Thy word” is the subject spoken of, “truth” is what is said of it (the predicate), and the verb “is” (the copula) connects it.
But any of these three may be dispensed with; and this law of syntax may be rightfully broken by Ellipsis.
Here, again, we have two things standing in related contrast, the "first" and the "new": i.e., the new, and the one that immediately precedes it; the former, and not the "first." For, the present "heavens and the earth which are now" (2 Pet 3:7) are not the first. For Scripture tells us of three, of which the present is the second. In 2 Pet 3:6-7, 13, we read of the first — the world that "then was" (Gen 1:1); of the second — "the heavens and the earth which are now"; and of the third — "a new heavens and a new earth," for which we now look. This (second of three) is what is called in Rev 21:1 the "first" of the latter two.
Therefore this "first resurrection" is the former of the two mentioned in this verse: and not the calling on high of Phil 3:14, or the resurrection of 1 Thess 4:16-17. This special resurrection (1 Thess 4:16) must be carefully distinguished from that which is called the "first resurrection" in Rev 20:6. The word "first" in 1 Thess 4:16 does not refer to "the first resurrection" so called in Rev 20:6, but merely records the order of events, and simply states that "the dead in the Messiah" will "rise first"; i.e., before the taking up of either them or the living saints.
The resurrection of 1 Thess 4:16 is not the resurrection of Rev 20:6. It was never revealed in the Old Testament; but was a special revelation made "by the word of the Lord" to Paul; and by Paul to the Thessalonian saints and to the Church of Yahweh.
Have any questions? Feel free to email me; keitner2024@outlook.com
