The Danielic Imperative, Episode 27

I do a podcast.

I'm not interested in your podcast. The anathema of God was for those who denied justification by faith alone. When that is at stake, we need to be on the battlefield exposing the air and combating the air.

We are unabashedly, unashamedly Clarkian. And so the next few statements that I'm going to make, I'm probably going to step on all of the Vantillian toes at the same time. And this is what we do at Simple Riff around the radio, you know.

We are polemical and polarizing Jesus style.

I would first say that to characterize what we do as fashion is itself fashion. It's not hate. It's history. It's not fashion. It's the Bible.

Jesus said, Woe to you when men speak well of you. For their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way. As opposed to blessed are you when you have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness.

It is on. We're taking the gloves off. It's time to battle.

Danielic Eschatology and the Timeline of Heaven and Earth

Welcome back to the Danielic Imperative. A podcast in which we explore the eschatology of the people of God in the light of the timeline revealed to us by the prophet Daniel. I am your host, Timothy F. Kaufman, and this is episode 27 on the topic of heaven and earth and eschatology.

And the importance of knowing when Daniel and John are talking about which one. As we have stated many times, Jesus and his apostles revealed the future of the people of God to us in explicitly and implicitly Danielic terms.

From Jesus's oblique reference in Matthew 21 to the two strikes of the stone of Daniel 2. To the abomination of desolation in Matthew 24 and Mark 13. To the beast of Revelation 13, which is in fact a compilation of the four beasts of Daniel 7.

To the seven kings of Revelation 17 5, which is simply a list of the kings of the iron legs of the statue of Daniel 2. Jesus established an eschatological timeline in Daniel, and that timeline serves as the foundation of his revelation of the future of God's people.

As the angel of Daniel 10 said in verse 14, I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days. Similarly, the angel of Revelation 1 said that he had come to John from Jesus to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass.

Or literally, must shortly begin. And Jesus's explicit instructions were that the information John recorded was to be sent to the churches. That's Revelation 1 11. While the books of Daniel and Revelation are written in figure, metaphor, and allegory, and Daniel recorded in words what he saw before him in visions and dreams and conversations, the prophecies were nevertheless given to us, as the angel said, to make us understand.

I emphasize this in particular because of the broad spectrum of views on interpreting prophetic utterances, ranging from a despondent relegation of the truths of Daniel and Revelation upon the ash heap of incomprehensibility to the unfortunate grasping at contemporary headlines as the lens through which the words are to be interpreted, an array of interpretive methods that largely divorce themselves from the scriptural tools we have been given to make us understand.

And for the most part, they confuse when Daniel and John are speaking of heaven and when they are speaking of earth. It is a small wonder that people give up on Revelation in despair, and pastors and preachers speak of its contents only in generalities and platitudes like, it's really about Jesus and his love for the church.

There is no doubt Jesus gave Revelation to his church because he loves it, but the book of Revelation is not just about Jesus's love for his church. It is also about his hatred of those who persecute his people and his particular and merciless vengeance upon them.

And as it turns out, his vengeance is brutal and extraordinary and, to some degree, behind us, as we shall see as we proceed through the seals, trumpets, and vials of Revelation. There is yet more vengeance to come, but a lot of it has happened in the past.

But first, a quick recap from our previous episode. Last time we answered a listener's question about the 13 horns of Daniel 7 and how we can know that the division of the Roman Empire was in fact 13 diocese and the little horn took three of them, which is why there were 10 left by the time Daniel saw the little horn rising among them.

We showed that Roman Catholicism had risen up and claimed the diocese of Italy, Egypt, and Orients through their three metropolitan cities of Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch, claiming that they were the three apostolic seas of Peter and that together they formed a sea of one upon which Christ had promised to build his church.

That is how the earthly kingdom of Antichrist came to be, all the while claiming that it was the promised heavenly kingdom of Christ on earth and convincing the world that it was exactly what Daniel had prophesied in chapters 2 and 7 as God's promised kingdom.

The reason everyone bought into the lie and the whole world wandered after the beast, including people who knew the scriptures, was because of a logically flawed interpretation of the Danielic timeline in which the stone of Daniel 2 only strikes once and in which there is a single judgment depicted in Daniel chapter 7.

In fact, there are two strikes of the stone in Daniel 2 and two judgments in Daniel 7. The first judgment follows the introduction of Christ's heavenly kingdom and the second precedes the introduction of his earthly kingdom.

It is the widespread and invalid conflation of those two judgments into one that legitimizes the religion of Roman Catholicism and leads people to the damnable conclusion that Roman Catholicism is the heavenly kingdom of God on earth.

Once those two judgments are seen in scriptures, Roman Catholicism may be plainly discerned as the fifth earthly empire of Daniel's visions, the empire that disturbed Daniel's cogitations and troubled his countenance and shocked him to the core.

When we see Roman Catholicism for what it is, we can certainly understand Daniel's shocked dismay from what he could see. The whole world was going to follow the fifth empire thinking it had found the religion of Christ, not knowing that it had wandered into the arms of Satan.

At the conclusion of episode 26, we promised to proceed with a discussion of the seals of revelation, and to do that, we're going to visit the heavenly kingdom of Christ, the earthly kingdom of Antichrist, and the earthly kingdom of Christ that follows it, and importantly, when each one is supposed to happen.

Unfortunately, we have allowed our invalid assumptions to obscure what the scriptures are plainly telling us about them, and the remarkable but predictable result is that many have confused the kingdom of Christ with the kingdom of Antichrist.

That is why otherwise intelligent people are so vulnerable to the claims of Roman Catholicism. So, to correct that error in our understanding, we'll need to visit the two judgments of Daniel 2 and Daniel 7, and once we do that, we will see that the first strike of the stone of Daniel 2 .34, the first judgment of Daniel 7 .10 against Rome, corresponds to the courtroom scene of Revelation 6 when Jesus begins to open the seals and, as a result, fragments the Roman Empire.

And the second strike of the stone, the second judgment of Daniel 7 .26 against Antichrist, corresponds to the judgment scene in Revelation 19 when Jesus treadeth the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God, and the beast and the false prophet of Revelation 13 are cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone.

That's Revelation 19 verses 15 to 20. Those are two different judgment scenes, and they are both depicted as two judgments in Daniel 2 and Daniel 7. When we see these two judgments of Daniel 7 and the two strikes of the stone in Daniel 2, it becomes very clear that between them there exists the satanic earthly empire of Roman Catholicism.

However, when the two strikes or two judgments are collapsed into one, it allows Roman Catholicism to lay claim as the kingdom of God on earth, leaving otherwise intelligent people looking for Antichrist in the wrong place.

We have depicted this graphically in the show notes. We'll see how and why that happens this week as a prelude to the seals of Revelation, the first strike of the stone in Daniel 2, the first judgment scene in Daniel 7.

So we have several things to talk about. First, we will revisit the propensity to mistake the earthly kingdom of Antichrist for the heavenly kingdom of Christ by collapsing those two judgments into one.

Second, we will examine how Christ's two kingdoms, heavenly and earthly, are described in scriptures. This will illuminate our understanding regarding the order and sequence of Christ's and Antichrist's kingdoms.

Third, we will demonstrate how John uses events occurring in heaven and events occurring on earth to reveal the Lord's timeline to us as events unfold in both locations. This is important because it shows just how important perspective is in eschatology.

We have to know when the prophet is describing what is happening in heaven and when he is describing something that is happening on earth. It matters very much and will prepare us for our next episode in which we discuss how Daniel and John were using what is happening in heaven and what is happening on earth to help us understand the timeline of the seals of Revelation so we can explore that first judgment, the first strike of the stone in Daniel 2, the first judgment of Daniel 7.

Those two references to the first judgment in Daniel, as it turns out, both refer to Christ breaking the seals of Revelation starting in chapter 6. And the information we have from Daniel and John together reveal to us exactly when Jesus started breaking those seals.

So, let's get going. We have a lot to cover today. Point one, our historical propensity to misunderstand Daniel 2 and Daniel 7 by conflating those two judgments into one. As we have demonstrated in prior episodes, the stone of Daniel 2 actually strikes twice.

First, striking only the feet of iron and clay, breaking them to pieces in Daniel 2 .34. And then in a second strike, breaking the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold together, Daniel 2 .35, just before the saints inherit their earthly kingdom.

Those are two strikes and Daniel actually indicates as much as he says in Daniel 2 .45 that the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold were not broken just because they collapsed when the feet crumbled under them, which is typically what is assumed, but rather that it is the stone itself that directly break in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold.

Remember, the first strike of the stone only broke the iron and clay to pieces. It did not break anything else. But upon the second strike, Daniel says, the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold were broken to pieces together and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors, and the wind carried them away that no place was found for them.

Those are two separate strikes. Jesus confirms this when he makes an oblique reference to the stone of Daniel 2 in Matthew 21 .44, saying,. And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken. That's referring to the first strike of the feet, in which it would appear that the statue had stumbled or tripped.

But on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. That's referring to the second strike, in which the stone grinds all the materials of the statue into chaff that's carried away by the wind.

And remember, Jesus said that in the context of the kingdom of God being taken away from the Jews and given to another nation, which is precisely what Daniel had foreseen in chapter 2. And in the days of those kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed.

And the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms. And it shall stand forever. That's Daniel 2 .44. On that note, Jesus told us in Luke 21 that when we see his prophecies come to pass, we should know that the kingdom of God is near at hand.

That's Luke 21 .31. That was a reference to his heavenly kingdom, and it was established during the fourth empire, within one generation of Jesus' words. As we will shortly discuss, that heavenly kingdom then proceeded to execute a judgment from heaven against the Roman Empire through the breaking of the seals of Revelation 6.

That is the first strike of the stone, and it broke the Roman Empire to pieces, but did not grind it to powder. From those pieces or fragments of the Roman Empire arose the religion of Roman Catholicism, the little horn of Daniel 7, the beast of Revelation 13.

And that kingdom ruled on earth as the successor to the Roman Empire as Christ continued to reign in heaven. As the scriptures indicate, the beast of Revelation 13 is the little horn of Daniel 7 and is comprised of all the preceding empires together because it was likened to a leopard and a bear and a lion.

That's Revelation 13 .2. This is what Daniel meant when he said that after the judgment of the fourth beast, the preceding beasts had their lives prolonged for a season and a time. That's Daniel 7 .12.

He was talking about Roman Catholicism. Roman Catholicism arose as a Roman horn from the fragments of the Roman Empire and ruled as its successor, but also embodied the three previous empires. Now at some future point, Jesus will return with his servants and take away the dominion of the little horn and consume and destroy it to the end, as it says in Daniel 7 .26.

That second judgment is against the little horn, which of course is part iron and clay since it answers to the period of the toes in Daniel 2, but is also part gold, silver, and brass since it is in the little horn that the preceding empires receive a prolongation of life.

And thus, the second judgment is against the little horn, which is to say that the second judgment is against the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold together, which is to say that the second judgment is against the sea beast of Revelation 13.

That's the second strike of the stone, and it is only then, after the second strike, that the stone of Daniel 2 grows up and fills the whole earth, as he says in Daniel 2 .35. And it is only after the destruction of the little horn that the saints of God receive a kingdom under the whole heaven.

That's Daniel 7 .27. So that is the sequence of kingdoms. The saints receive a heavenly kingdom with Christ during the Roman Empire as attested by Daniel 2 .44 and 7 .18. Christ in his heavenly kingdom executes a judgment against Rome in a first strike as depicted in Daniel 2 .34 and Daniel 7 .11 and in the breaking of the seals of Revelation 6, resulting in the fragmentation of the Roman Empire from which Roman Catholicism arises as a toe of Daniel 2 or a horn of Daniel 7.

The preceding empires, for reasons we have explained, received a prolongation of life in Roman Catholicism which arises as an earthly kingdom among the fragments and exercises civil dominion and persecutes the saints.

And then later Jesus comes and destroys Roman Catholicism, the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver and the gold together, the little horn of Daniel 7. And the saints receive an earthly kingdom. Now that is a very important sequence and scriptures testify to it abundantly and repeatedly.

And we would not want to get it wrong. Such a mistake could lead people into the wrong kingdom. And indeed, such a mistake has led people into the wrong kingdom. It is a very strong delusion. And apart from God's preservation of his people, it would be a delusion so strong it would be impossible to resist.

Unfortunately, the traditional interpretation is that the stone of Daniel 2 only strikes once. And that assumption leads to the conclusion, not only among Roman Catholics, but even among some Protestants and Reformers, that the rising political power and carnal influence of the late 4th century church was the fulfillment of the stone striking the statue and growing up to fill up the whole world.

As allegedly prophesied, soon after the destruction of the Roman Empire, the stone grew up and filled the whole world with the bishop of Rome in charge. That assumption essentially legitimizes the satanic religion that has ever since masqueraded as Christianity and has in fact claimed that title based on a gross misinterpretation of the Daniel 2 prophecy.

Never forget that Cardinal John Henry Newman left the Anglican Communion in 1845 and became one of the greatest apologists for Roman Catholicism, absolutely convinced that Daniel 2 had foreseen the growth, rise, and civil sovereignty of the Roman Church over the known world after the fall of the Roman Empire.

In his famous essay, On the Development of Christian Doctrine, in which he detailed his conviction that Roman Catholicism is the true Church of Christ, Newman's foundational axiom was that Daniel's prophecy had already determined that the religion established by the apostles was to be a power visible in the world and sovereign over it.

Under Newman's invalid single-strike rubric, that sovereign earthly power could be no other than the rising religion based in Rome after the fragmentation of the preceding empire. Under that assumption, we can hardly blame Newman for converting to Roman Catholicism.

It was a false and deadly assumption, but he took it where it led him, and that single-strike rubric can and does lead some people into the arms of Antichrist. Another more recent example is Taylor Marshall, who left the Episcopal Communion just a few years back, absolutely convinced that Daniel had foreseen the Church of Jesus Christ receiving an earthly kingdom from the Roman Empire in Daniel 2.

This is quoting from his blog entry The Roman Church as Prophesied in the Old Testament, and he says,. As we see in Daniel 2, Rome's sovereignty shall be left to another people, and it would happen through the introduction of a stone or a rock, a petros, or Peter.

Again, that's former Protestant Taylor Marshall enthusiastically embracing Roman Catholicism, because he assumed the stone only struck once. He, too, has since become one of the greatest apologists for Roman Catholicism, absolutely convinced that Daniel had seen the Church of Christ inheriting the earthly empire from Rome and then ruling over it.

From that single-strike perspective, it sure looks like Roman Catholicism is that prophesied stone that struck the Roman Empire and then filled up the whole world. In fact, many people, including some Protestants, assume that the politically powerful late 4th century medieval Church must have been the true religion of Christ because it grew up and filled the whole earth and ruled over it just like the stone in Daniel 2.

Once you grant that assumption that the stone only struck once, it is a matter of simple deduction to arrive eventually at the conclusion that perhaps the Reformers were in error to separate from the Church Jesus Christ founded.

After all, they ended up breaking off from the stone Daniel had prophesied, right? And Jesus promised the gates of hell would not prevail against that Church. Well, that's where the single-strike interpretation of Daniel 2 must ultimately lead the unwary student of Scripture.

The same is true if you assume a single-judgment interpretation of Daniel 7. Daniel explicitly identifies two judgments in this chapter, just like he did in chapter 2. He says in Daniel 7 verses 10 -11 that the judgment was set, resulting in the destruction of the fourth beast, and Daniel 7 26 -27 says, but the judgment shall sit, resulting in the destruction of the little horn.

It is only then that the kingdom and dominion and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heavens shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom.

Those are two judgments. The first against the Roman Empire, and the second against the little horn. And only then do the saints inherit an earthly kingdom under heaven. But if Daniel 7 is read as if there is a single judgment against the fourth beast and the little horn together, it gives the impression that the saints of God inherit the Roman Empire and receive an earthly kingdom immediately following the judgment of God against the fourth empire.

I know we have covered this before, but it is incredibly important that Christians understand not only that there are two judgments depicted in each chapter, but also the grave consequences of collapsing them into a single judgment, as all the commentaries do.

It plays right into the hands of Rome, which would be bad enough, but it misses what the scriptures are plainly warning us about. That the earthly kingdom that followed the Roman Empire is the evil, satanic religion of Antichrist, not the earthly manifestation of Christ's heavenly kingdom.

If you assume that the fourth beast and the little horn of Daniel 7 are destroyed at once, it gives the impression that the saints of God inherit the Roman Empire from Rome and receive their earthly kingdom in the image and likeness of that pagan empire.

That is exactly the position Roman apologist Taylor Marshall takes on Daniel 7 as well. Namely, that Daniel had foreseen the saints of God taking the Roman Empire away from its previous custodians and establishing an earthly kingdom of God with the Pope as its head.

There are four kingdoms. Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Greek, and Roman. And then Roman Catholicism takes over, and the saints of God receive their earthly kingdom. This is Taylor Marshall in his book, The Eternal City.

The kingdom is taken away from the fourth beast and given to whom? The last four lines leap off the page. Read them over and over again. Who receives the kingdom? The people of the saints of the Most High.

Again, Taylor Marshall, The Eternal City, Daniel foretells the Roman Church. That is, again, Taylor Marshall, former Episcopalian, absolutely convinced that Daniel had seen the Church of Christ inheriting the earthly empire from Rome and then ruling over it because he assumed there was only one judgment in Daniel 7.

But we know better. There are two. These errors that I have highlighted in the thinking of the Roman apologists are precisely what is wrong with taking an approach to Daniel 2 and 7 in which there is a single judgment depicted.

And yet that is precisely the assumption that is made by Protestant eschatologists as well. Calvin saw the stone of Daniel 2, the Church of Christ, as the fifth empire on earth. And John Gill, the English Baptist theologian, believed the stone striking the statue was fulfilled quote, especially when the Roman empire as pagan was destroyed by Constantine and the kingdom of Christ was set up in it unquote, as if Christ's earthly kingdom manifested immediately following the Roman empire.

Small wonder that E. B. Elliot, when interpreting Revelation 12, 5 about the man-child that was caught up to God and to his throne, understood it to refer to the rise of the Roman church to a dominant political power in which the Christians ostensibly became a political force and took their rightful place in Rome to rule the heathen and to coerce them with the rod of iron.

Again, that's E. B. Elliot, Protestant theologian, commenting on the fulfillment of Revelation 12 as the elevation of the Christian church to a political force in Rome. Calvin unfortunately took the same approach to Daniel 7, assuming that the fourth beast and the little horn were destroyed in one single judgment, something that Daniel does not actually say.

At Daniel 7, 11, Calvin writes, the presumptuous speaking of the little horn was at an end and the fourth beast was extinct at about the same time. By collapsing the two judgments into one, Calvin is left struggling with how to reconcile Daniel's statements that the saints received a heavenly kingdom in the period of the fourth beast but also received an earthly kingdom at the destruction of the little horn at about the same time.

The only way to reconcile that is to assume that Christ's heavenly kingdom and his earthly kingdom were formed simultaneously. And so, to make sense of the prophecy, Calvin appealed to the widespread fame and celebrity enjoyed by the church once the gospel began to spread in every direction and the saints began to reign under heaven as Calvin says.

At Daniel 7, 22, he observes the kingdom of God and the saints obtained some fame and celebrity in the world through the general diffusion of the doctrine of piety in every direction. And then at Daniel 7, 27, he observes as well, the saints began to reign under heaven when Christ ushered in his kingdom by the promulgation of his gospel.

Calvin had not noticed that there were in fact two judgments and so collapsed them both into a single judgment and thus concluded that the saints of God had obtained some fame and celebrity and an earthly reign following the collapse of the Roman Empire.

It's the same conclusion that led Newman and Marshall and so many others to look at the medieval church as the fulfillment of Christ's earthly kingdom. The truth is, the saints never thought that they were reigning on earth and did not revel in their fame and celebrity and did not rise to a body politic in the early centuries and did not rise to supremacy in Rome to coerce the heathen until the end of the fourth century when they began to wield the civil sword.

And I'm using saints in air quotes here. The saints didn't actually do this. Until then, there was no sense in which the saints thought that they were reigning on earth. Their hearts and eyes were ever heavenward, understanding that they were merely pilgrims on earth and were not in any sense reigning over it.

Their citizenship, their kingdom, their king and their chief metropolis were all in heaven, not on earth and certainly not in Rome. And to our point, it is that perception of an earthly dominion that developed when what claimed to be Christ's church began to enjoy fame and celebrity and sway in the earthly administration of the collapsing empire, which is precisely why that single judgment approach to Daniel 7 is so catastrophic from an eschatological perspective.

It plays right into the hands of the Roman apologist who believes the rising Roman religion that Christ allegedly founded was predestined to be the successor to the Roman Empire and to rule over it with a rod of iron.

What these interpretations all have in common, of course, is that they missed the two judgments of Daniel 2 and 7 and thus inadvertently legitimized the Roman Catholic religion as it rose at the end of the fourth century.

After all, if the church began to wield the Lord's rod of iron and the emperor's civil sword and to coerce the heathen and to enjoy fame and celebrity on earth because of the popularity of their message, in what way is the earthly church of Christ any different than what Cardinal Numa described when he said after the first strike the stone grew up and exercised some sovereignty over the world?

And Taylor Marshall claims when he says the people of God received an earthly kingdom from the Roman Empire. In some ways, the Protestant commentators have done the Roman apologists' job for him by stipulating that Christ's earthly kingdom through his church followed immediately upon the collapse of the Roman Empire, and his heavenly kingdom was manifested in the celebrity power and fame of his church.

The truth is, the scriptures teach in Daniel 2 and 7 that the saints of God receive a heavenly kingdom during the fourth empire and only receive an earthly kingdom after the destruction of Antichrist, after the second judgment, but that the Antichrist figure receives an earthly kingdom in the meantime, arising from the fragments of the fourth empire.

Only after that earthly reign of Antichrist does Christ return to destroy the ungodly earthly kingdom, and only then does the stone of Christ's kingdom grow up and fill the whole earth. Only then do the saints of God receive a kingdom under the whole heaven.

Between the two strikes of Daniel 2 and the two judgments of Daniel 7 is an utterly satanic, fifth earthly kingdom masquerading as Christianity, and we miss that fact when we assume the stone only struck once, and that the fourth beast and the little horn of Daniel 7 are destroyed in a single judgment.

That is why the Danielic timeline is so important, and that leads us to our second point. Point two. We will now examine briefly how Christ's two kingdoms, heavenly and earthly, are plainly described in scriptures for us.

We won't spend a huge amount of time on this, but it is worth a few moments to point out some pretty straightforward scriptural indications of a significant difference between Christ's heavenly and earthly kingdoms, both as to location and to timing.

We have already covered Daniel 2, in which he says the stone strike in the statue of the feet indicates that the God of heaven shall set up a kingdom. That's Daniel 2 .44. That's a heavenly kingdom set up during the fourth empire, and we know Jesus informed us that this was a heavenly kingdom, and that after the second strike, the stone grows up and fills the whole earth, Daniel 2 .35, which is, of course, a reference to an earthly kingdom.

That's pretty straightforward. The same may be said of Daniel 7. In Daniel 7 .14, the angel explains that after four kingdoms, the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, which again, based on Christ's own words, must refer to a heavenly one.

And then, in Daniel 7 .26, after the destruction of the little horn, the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High. A clear reference to an earthly kingdom under heaven.

Even in the heavenly scene of Revelation 5, we hear the saints thanking the Lord that he'd made them kings and priests to God, referring to the heavenly kingdom they currently possessed, and that one day they would even reign on earth, referring, of course, to their future earthly kingdom.

This is the saints of God in Revelation 5, verses 9 to 10, reigning with Christ in heaven, speaking of a day when they would reign with him on earth. And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof.

For thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by the blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation, and hast made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth.

Again, Revelation 5, verses 9 to 10. They are currently kings and priests in heaven, and will one day reign on the earth. Fast forward now to Revelation 20, after the little horn, the beast of Revelation 13, and the false prophet had been cast into the lake of fire, and now those same saints are on earth, with Christ, reigning with him.