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.
Ask a Follow-up Question
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 3:E-27
At the time of the giving of the Revelation, according to tradition, Paul had already died a martyr, but John was carrying on in his stead exactly as Paul had done in the days of his ministry. The death of Paul, before the Revelation was given, does not at all annul the fact that he was the messenger to the Ephesian Church Age, for the messenger to every age, regardless of when he appears or goes, is the one who influences that age for God by means of a Word-manifested ministry. Paul was that man.
Questions and Answers, Part 1
64-0823M §79
...with the rest of the Gentile elected bride that's been down through the ages---be caught up in the presence of Christ in the heavens. The dead raises; the ones that's alive and remain is changed; and they're caught up together in the air to meet the Lord. Then, because... After the wedding ceremony in glory, Jesus---after that has caught up into the skies, Jesus returns on to the earth and makes Hisself known to his people, in the type like Joseph made hisself known to his brothers. And his wife, no Gentile was pre...
Faith by experience
58-0325 §38
I want to ask you something, especially you Jews. On the kosher bread at Yom Kippur, the Scripture only gives record of two pieces of bread. But you know, it has three, and the middle piece is the broken piece; the Messiah. What was it that told Job where to be buried? Not a Scripture wrote about it. What was it that told Abraham to buy that piece of ground there by Job? Job, when the Spirit come upon him and he said, "I know my Redeemer liveth, the last days He'll come upon the earth. Though the skin worms destroy...
Balm in Gilead
59-1124 §27
He was put to the test. There He went to Calvary, mockery spit all over His face, His face bleeding where they jerked handfuls of beard out of His face, beaten, when He could have spoke one word and it would've changed the whole thing. But the toxin held. He died. He had the sins of the world. Every sin that was ever in the world was placed upon Him. Under that burden of sin, with all the weight of sin laid upon Him, He died. He died until the sun went down in the middle of the day. He died until the stars wouldn't...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 9:E-50
...ought is. In the Dark Ages the Word was almost entirely lost to the people. But God sent Luther with the WORD. The Lutherans spoke for God at that time. But they organized, and again the pure Word was lost for organization tends toward dogma and creeds, and not simple Word. They could no longer speak for God. Then God sent Wesley, and he was the voice with the Word in his day. The people who took his revelation from God became the living epistles read and known of all men for their generation. When the Methodists f...