ACC ~ Revelation 20 v4a

THOSE REIGN WITH CHRIST WHO ARE HIS KINGDOM. AUGUSTINE: During the “thousand years” when the devil is bound, the saints also reign for a “thousand years” and, doubtless, the two periods are identical and mean the span between Christ’s first and second coming. For not only in that future kingdom to which Christ referred in the words, “Come, blessed of my Father, take possession of the kingdom prepared for you,” but even now those saints reign with him in some authentic though vastly inferior fashion. To them he said, “Behold, I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world.” … This, to be sure, is the period in which the scribe instructed in the kingdom of heaven brings forth from his storeroom things new and old, as I mentioned above.So, too, the reapers are to gather up out of the church the weeds, which he allows to grow intermixed with the wheat up to the time of harvest. … This certainly cannot be the kingdom that is to be utterly without scandals. The kingdom from which scandals are gathered out, then, must be the church on earth. … The mixed kingdom must be the church, such as she exists in her temporal stage, while the unmixed kingdom is the church such as she will be when she is to contain no evildoer. Consequently the church, even in this world, here and now, is the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of heaven. Here and now Christ’s saints reign with him, although not in the way they are destined to reign hereafter; but the “weeds” do not reign with him, even now, though they grow along with the “wheat” in the church. … Those alone reign with Christ whose presence in his kingdom is such that they themselves are his kingdom. … Now it is of this militant stage of the kingdom, during which there is still war with our enemy, alternating victory over, and defeat before, our evil inclinations, that the Apocalypse speaks. The “thou-sand years” are to last until we come to that kingdom, free of the foe, where the saints reign in fullest peace. … After mentioning the devil’s chaining for a thousand years and his brief interval of freedom to follow, John sums up the activity of and in the church during the “thousand years”: “And I saw thrones, and men sat upon them and judgment was given to them.” Now there is no question of the last judgment in this verse. The thrones and the enthroned people are the prelates who govern the church here and now. And the judgment is best interpreted as the one contained in the words, “Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed also in heaven.” CITY OF GOD 20.9.

THE APOSTLES JUDGED THOSE WHO DID NOT BELIEVE. OECUMENIUS: He explains yet more fully the life of the incarnate Lord, namely, that which now meets us in the vision. For it says, “Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom judgment was committed.” He sees the holy apostles to whom the promise was made that they would “sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”Although this will be fulfilled more completely in the coming age, it did happen partially at the time of the incarnation. For when they believed in the Lord and shared in a multitude of blessings, they condemned those who did not wish to come to the faith and those who, although they had been taught by the grace given to the apostles, did not advance to the same piety but rather plotted his death on the cross. COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 20.4-8.

CONDEMNATION FOR THOSE WHO REJECT THE GOSPEL. ANDREW OF CAESAREA: Indeed, the teaching thrones had already been given to the holy apostles through whom the nations have been enlightened. However, thrones will also be given according to the purpose of God in the age to come for the condemnation of those who rejected the preaching of the gospel. As David said, “For there the tribes went up, the tribes of the Lord, as a testimony for Israel,” and again, “For there are set thrones for judgment.” COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 20.4.

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