Crazed Chiliasm

Rev. 20:4-6 (ESV)
Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. [5] The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. [6] Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.

More Millennial Madness, and craze chiliasm! Not quite. These verses need to be read ever so carefully and in context with all of what scripture says. One dare not take them to literally, and yet one must take them as literal as the text means for them to be taken.
John sees thrones, and on them are those to whom the authority to judge was committed. What I am about to say next is enough to put most Christians today into a tail spin. We are these who have been given this authority. John 20 reads: Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you." [22] And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. [23] If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld." (John 20:21-23 (ESV) One reading Matthew 16 and 18 will see that this authority to forgive and retain sins on earth has been given to the church, that is all saints, for all who believe and are baptized are saints, holy ones set apart for the work of God. Like wise in Luke 17:3 we are told: “Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him.” (Luke 17:3 (ESV)
This bit about forgiving sins is a heavy bit. This is not something to be taken very lightly. Some would argue with the Pharisees that only God can forgive sins. But who can argue with God? If he gives you the authority, then the authority is yours. Some try to argue that Jesus only means those sins that are committed against you yourself. There are not sins that are committed only against you yourself. All sins even those committed against you are sins against God. Take the lesson from the murderous adulterer who arguably sinned against Uriah and his wife Bathsheba, but who writes in the Psalms : “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.” (Psalm 51:4 (ESV) All sins are against God, and when he tasks us with forgiving them, he tasks us with forgiving sins committed against him. Why? For two reasons the sins committed against you are committed in fact against God. First you were created in his image. This is true of all humans. We are created in his image, to sin against our fellow man, is then to sin against and despise the image of God, This is true even if that image has been greatly tarnished with sin already. Second, to sin against another human being is to sin against one for whom Christ died, as he died for all. You sin against one whom he has redeemed with his blood. Therefore you sin not only against this other person, but against his blood, that blood in which is found the forgiveness of sins! Think about that next time you are tempted not to pay back a brother from whom you borrowed money. Think about that next time you have dirty thoughts concerning another’s spouse, or would like to use and abuse a person to be discarded the next morning when your “needs” have been taken care of. Think about that when you would like to beat a person to a bloody pulp for, you fill in the reason. Think about that next time you think it might be right to deny the grace of God in baptism to “one of these little ones who believe in me”. (Matthew 18:6, Mark 9:42) Think about that as you contemplate divorcing the person whom God commands you to love.
Perhaps this analogy can be brought further though, especially for you who have been baptized into Christ, who are the body of Christ. To sin against one claimed by God, is not a light thing. And it is a weighty authority God gives us to judge the nations. It is one that will not go untested by the world. The world resents the authority of God that condemns what the world loves, sin in all its forms the sin of the legalist and the sin of the libertine, the sin of the prude and the sin of the fornicator, the sin of the glutton and the sin of the anorexic, the sin of self-righteousness and the sin of debauchery. And one who possesses and exercises the authority of God to forgive sin and lose the bonds of the slaves of sin, will be hunted down with the blood hounds of hell, tortured and flogged by the plantation’s foremen, perhaps even beheaded.
Persecution has so many forms, some subtle, some overt. All in all they aim to decapitate, separate the body from the head, who is Christ. But we who have been baptized and marked with the seal of Christ, will not bow to the beast or receive his mark. So it is all Christians reign with Christ for the thousand years, as they all enjoy the first resurrection that protects them from the second death.
You see this first resurrection implies a second resurrection, and the second death implies a first death. The first resurrection is one from the first death. We were dead in our trespasses, but we are through baptism buried into Christ’s death so that just as he was raised from the dead, so we might walk in the newness of life. (Rom 6:4) We have been given eternal life already. We will enjoy the full glory of this in the second resurrection whether before or after we die. But for those who have not experienced the first resurrection, baptism, conversion, the second death awaits after the second resurrection. And so perhaps the most evil thing we can do to our neighbor, for whom Christ died, is not share the good news of life in Christ who rose from the dead for our justification. And why should we be afraid of them, that we would not? We have eternal life in Christ, and they cannot separate us from him.