The Second Resurrection
The second resurrection happens after a thousand years have passed. This resurrection is for only those who were unfaithful to Christ (the saved are alive in heaven with Christ). This resurrection is also called the
"resurrection of condemnation" (
John 5:29). These are the lost people who decided to reject Christ during their life on earth.
After the saved go back to heaven with Christ, the Bible tells us,
"And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years" (
Revelation 20:4).
The first resurrection begins the 1,000-year period.
“This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection” (
Revelation 20:5-6). As
Revelation 20:4 tells us, the saved in heaven will take part in judgement and reign with Christ for the 1000 years. What judgement will the saved take part in?
"Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life?" (
1 Corinthians 6:3). They judge the evil angels including Satan. They also search the Books to see for themselves why those not in heaven with them were not permitted to rise in the first resurrection with them. This judgment will clear up any questions the saved might have about those who were lost. In the end, they will see that people are shut out of heaven because they did not really want to live like Jesus or to be with Him.
Also, they are in heaven for that thousand years because when Jesus comes back the second time, the entire earth goes into such upheaval that it becomes uninhabitable.
Revelation 21:1 tells us of a new creation, a new heaven and a new earth that will be given to the redeemed at the end of the thousand years, when the New Jerusalem, where they're living, comes down from heaven.
Revelation 21:2.
During that same millennium Satan is chained on this earth,
"Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished" (
Revelation 20:1-3). There is no one on earth for Satan to deceive. The entire planet is empty, left in ruins, without a single human being (
Jeremiah 4:24-26). The wicked are all dead. The words
"bottomless pit" are the same words the Bible uses in Greek for the state of the earth before creation. In the original Greek
“abussos,” or abyss means
"bottomless pit". It is the same word is used in
Genesis 1:2 in the Greek version of the Old Testament in connection with the creation of the earth but there it is translated “
deep.” “The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep.” The words
“deep,” “bottomless pit,” and
“abyss” refer to the same thing—the earth in its totally dark, disorganized form before God made order of it. So for the 1000 years, Satan is in a devastated, lifeless earth that is void, with no possibility to tempt anyone because they are all dead. He essentially spends 1000 years in solitary confinement.
““The rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. ... When the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations” (
Revelation 20:5, 7, 8). At the close of the 1,000 years (when Jesus comes back the third time), the unsaved will be raised. Satan, loosed from his bonds, will then have an earth full of people (all the nations of the world) to deceive. Unfortunately, these people are not raised to eternal life, but instead will face the second death. Why are the unsaved resurrected to die again this time for eternity? Why not leave them to stay dead for eternity?
Jesus and the redeemed come down to earth with the New Jerusalem city. That's Jesus' third coming to earth. But before the re-creation of earth, the second resurrection will happen. Those raised in the second resurrection are organised by Satan to attack the newly-descended city,
"Satan will … go out to deceive the nations … of the earth … to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea. They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city” (
Revelation 20:7-9). But they hear judgment pronounced against them, and then they experience
"the second death" in the fire from heaven (
Revelation 20:9-10; 21:8, Malachi 4:3). The Bible describes the lake of fire, where they're destroyed, as th
e "second death." Revelation 20:14-15 says,
"Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire." ( see also
1 Corinthians 15:26; Revelation 21:8) The unsaved are not given immortality, especially since
"death and hell" are also
"cast into the lake of fire," to be destroyed forever too. Biblically there's no such thing as an eternally burning torment of hellfire. No sinner is given immortality. Eternal life/immortality is promised only to the saved.
With the destruction of Satan and the unsaved, sin is eradicated and death itself is destroyed. Christ has given the assurance that everyone
"'who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death'" (
Revelation 2:11).