855. And shall reign with Him a thousand years. This symbolically means that the people described were already in heaven when the rest who did not live again, that is, who did not accept the life of heaven, were still in the world of spirits.

To reign with Christ does not mean to reign with Him, but to be in His kingdom, or in heaven, as may be seen in nos. 284, 849 above. A thousand years does not mean a thousand years, but symbolically means for a while, as in no. 842 above.

The thousand years symbolizes nothing else than that period of time which intervened between the shutting up of the dragon in the bottomless pit and its being set loose, as is apparent because we are told that it was cast into the bottomless pit, shut up, and had a seal set on it for a thousand years, and then that it was set loose (verses 3 and 7). This same period of time is also symbolically meant here. Therefore that the people described would reign with Christ a thousand years means, symbolically, that they were already in heaven when the rest of the dead who did not live again, mentioned in verse 5, were in the world of spirits.

But this is not comprehended by people who do not know that numbers in the book of Revelation do not mean numbers but properties. I can testify that angels do not entertain a natural idea of any number, as people do, but a spiritual one. Indeed, they do not know what a thousand years is, but only that it is some interval of time, short or long, which can only be expressed as a while.