For understanding Rev. 20:4, in its literal and obvious meaning, we possess a divine warrant which ought to cut short all controversy on the subject. In ch. 11:17, 18, the same great events are particularly spoken of in language, the literality of which cannot be doubted. From this passage we, moreover, learn, that the martyrs are not exclusively the subjects of the first resurrection, but that all the righteous dead partake therein— “We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power and hast reigned. And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and to them that fear thy name, small and great.” That this takes place at the commencement of the millennial period, is clear from verse 15.