Where and When Do the Souls Under the Altar -jews Who Died in Pogroms of the Ages Resurrect? Will They Be in the Millenium?
1) Direct answer
They will not rise in the first resurrection to reign in the Millennium. The souls under the altar (the Jewish martyrs of the ages) remain at rest until the great tribulation is finished, and they come up after the thousand years, at the general resurrection, to receive their portion among the saved. They are not the Bride and do not reign in the Millennium.
2) Scriptural explanation
- Identity and timing: Revelation 6:9-11 shows them “under the altar,” crying for justice, and they are told to “rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren… should be killed as they were.” That “little season” reaches its fulfillment when God finishes dealing with Israel in the tribulation, when their “brethren” (the sealed of Israel and those martyred under that final persecution—see Revelation 7:1-8; 11) complete the number.
- Who reigns in the Millennium: Revelation 20:4-6 shows the first resurrection—those who “lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” That reigning company is the Bride (Revelation 7:9-17; Revelation 20:4). Notice the description in Revelation 20:4 centers on those with the witness of Jesus and who refused the beast. The souls under the altar in Revelation 6 are not identified as having the witness of Jesus; they were blinded in part (Romans 11:25), yet given white robes by grace and told to wait.
- When they rise: Scripture states, “the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished” (Revelation 20:5). Those not in the first resurrection rise after the Millennium to stand at the Great White Throne (Revelation 20:11-13). From there, the “nations of the saved” walk in the light of the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:24). That is where the white-robed, non-Bride redeemed have their portion—saved, but not the ruling Bride in the City.
3) Simple clarifying logic
- They are told to wait until their brethren are also killed—so their case is not finished until after the tribulation.
- The Bible clearly limits the Millennial reign to those in the first resurrection (Revelation 20:4-6). Since Revelation 6 does not place those souls in that reigning company, they do not rise to reign then.
- Therefore, they remain at rest through the tribulation and the Millennium, and they rise after the thousand years to their place among the saved, while the Bride (Revelation 7:9-17; 20:4) reigns with Christ during the Millennium.
4) Reinforcing statement
So, the souls under the altar will not be in the Millennium as rulers. They are preserved by grace, awaiting vindication, and they come forth after the thousand years to their eternal portion among the redeemed nations, while the Bride alone reigns with Christ during the Millennial Kingdom.
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What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 7:E-89
It is the second resurrection that the "souls under the altar" as set forth in the fifth seal (Revelation 6:9-11) are given white robes, and of course eternal life, or there would be no point of white robes. "And when He had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the Word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And whi...
Questions and Answers, Part 3
64-0830M §126
"Will the church who died during the tribulation period (see?) be in the resurrection?" The second resurrection, second resurrection. "Will they also wait until the resurrection of the ungodly?" The just and the unjust will be raised at the same time. "Will they live again during the millennium?" No! And the rest of the dead live not for the end of the thousand years. Now, that's pretty short, but I'm sure...
Church Ages, part 9: The ten virgins, and the 144,000
60-1211M §60
And then, there was a space given then for the Gentiles and they come down to this age. Then there's three-and-a-half years left yet for the Jews. Now if we go to Revelation 11, we'll pick up exactly at the end... The church don't appear till the 19th chapter of Revelation, but the end of that, Elijah and Moses returns again and preach to the Jews---two men anointed with that spirit---or maybe them theirself. They never died, so... They killed them, and they lay them in the street called Sodom, where our Lord was c...
Hebrews, Chapter 4
57-0901E §23
The third chapter and the seventeenth verse: But with whom he was grieved for forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? And of all of them that come out of Egypt, only two went into the promised land. Out of the whole antediluvian world, in the days gone by, there were eight souls saved out of billions. "Strait is the gate and narrow is the way, but few there'll be that will find it." Some people says, then, "Brother Branham, what about all these thousands that the B...
The resurrection of Lazarus
53-1122 §11
You know, sometimes I think that... Wonder how the Lord feels about us sometimes, when He does so many things for us, and yet we just sit like we were in a subconscious, don't we? Aren't we all guilty? I am. We just sit and say, "Well, Lord, I wish You'd do something for me." He can't do nothing no more for us than what He has already done. He's already healed us. He's already saved us. He's already give us joy. He give us His peace. He's our shield, our buckler, our, everything that we have is in Him and He's done...