Ever wonder why Jesus kept telling 1st-century saints they would judge the 12 tribes of Israel? Because they would, and they did. The martyrs who were killed were given white robes & told to wait a little while until the rest of the martyrs came to heaven. Alongside Christ, who was already reigning, they judged those that killed them – not only physically, but spiritually. Furthermore, the religious leaders of Jerusalem were not all they rendered judgment upon alongside Christ. They also judged the fallen angels who had been in Hades since the flood, for Hades was emptied at the 7th trumpet, and destroyed. The resurrection of the dead – some to everlasting righteousness, and some to everlasting contempt, per the prophet Daniel, was fulfilled during the destruction of the temple in AD 70 – just as Jesus said, within the timeframe HE SAID it would happen. Look carefully at the following texts:
Isaiah 1:21-26
How the faithful city has become a whore, she who was full of justice! Righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers.
22
Your silver has become dross, your best wine mixed with water.
23
Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves. Everyone loves a bribe and runs after gifts. They do not bring justice to the fatherless, and the widow’s cause does not come to them.
24
Therefore the Lord declares, the Lord of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel: “Ah, I will get relief from my enemies and avenge myself on my foes.
25
I will turn my hand against you and will smelt away your dross as with lye and remove all your alloy.
26
And I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city.”
Catch this!
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In the above prophecy, notice what happens right afterward : the New Jerusalem is ushered in. That’s right, the bride of Christ, the church, with the Holy Spirit in the midst of us. The temples of our bodies made perfect through Jesus replaced the old physical temple. Let’s read more about this kingdom “cut from no human hand” that would crush the others, win the SPIRITUAL victory (for Jesus fights with the sword from His mouth – The Word of God) and the martyred saints who judged 1st century harlot Jerusalem:
Daniel 7:22
22 until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was given for the saints of the Most High, and the time came when the saints possessed the kingdom.
Matthew 19:28
Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
Luke 22:28-30: “You are those who have stood by me in my trials. And I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”
I Corinthians 6
Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? 3 Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life!
2 Thessalonians 1:
5 This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering— 6 since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, 7 and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels 8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
Revelation 2:26-27
26 The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, 27 and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father.
Revelation 3:21
21 The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne.
Revelation 6
9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. 10 They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” 11 Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.
Revelation 7
9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” 11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.” 13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” 14 I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Revelation 12:
10 And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. 11 And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. 12 Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”
Revelation 20:4
4 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 those 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.
Gotta see it
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Physical death for a spiritual cause was rewarded with a crown, a robe, and a throne alongside Jesus. The martyrs judged the great harlot Jerusalem in the generation Jesus said it would happen. Those responsible for the blood of the prophets and saints were destroyed, along with their defiled temple, ushering in the new bride of Christ: the church, the temple of the Holy Spirit, a kingdom cut from no human hand, over which Christ reigns forever. Death was defeated, Hades was emptied, those who died prior to the cross (like Abraham) were united at the table with post-cross Christians (like Stephen) in the marriage supper of the lamb. (Go look at what was on the menu!) Unbelievers were cast into eternal judgment, along with the angels of the abyss who left their natural place prior to flood of Noah. Today … “it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgement.” When your time comes and you stand in the spiritual courtroom, what will God see? All your sin? Or innocence through the blood of Jesus shed for you? Have you accepted Him? Or rejected Him?
The fulfillment of Revelation stands alongside the resurrection as one of the most incredible proofs ever – that Jesus was exactly who He said He was. It happened as He said it would happen. It happened WHEN He said it would happen.
Bonus: look up what a Jewish “kittle“ was. A white robe with no pockets for physical possessions was not the point – worn during weddings and Passover traditions, as well as for burial … how omniscient is our God. His commands all held a purpose, and all painted a picture of His future plans!