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5 But[de] the rest[loipoy] of the dead[nekros] lived[anazao] not[ou] again[anazao] until[heos] the thousand[chilioi] years[etos] were finished.
[teleo] This[houtos] is the first[protos]
resurrection.[anastasis] KJV-Interlinear
5 The rest of
the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed. This is
the first resurrection. NASB
Our key word here is resurrection, 'anastasis,' which refers to a physical resurrection and not some spiritual form of non-entity or higher plane sort of existence.
The dead, that will be resurrected last, will be those who die during the Millennium, and those who remain alive through to the end of the Millennium.
The Millennium begins with believers that survive the tribulation. These folks are still in their physical bodies. They will propagate new generations of people and the population on the earth will grow rapidly until the end of the Millennium.
Longer lifespans will see people with ages in the hundreds of years by the end of the Millennium. This is their first life of course.
And just as Christians who remain alive at the Rapture in our dispensation are changed, then so too, will those in the last group of living believers be changed instantly when history is completed at the end of the Millennium to their new and eternal life.
This verse does not address unbelievers. They are never resurrected into a second life, but merely brought before Christ at the Great White Throne, to be thrown into the Lake of Fire.
The first resurrection, refers to the completion of the resurrection process of all believers, when the Millennial believers receive their resurrection bodies.
Christ was the first to be resurrected (three days after the cross), Church Age believers will be the second group at the rapture, Old Testament and Tribulation believers (who have died) will be the third group, and finally the Millennial believers will receive their resurrection at the end of the Millennium. Thus all believers in these four groups, make up the first resurrection.
Unbelievers will make up the second resurrection, which is not a resurrection, but a calling before Gods throne for the purpose of their final judgment and second death. They died once during their life, and they will die again, into a second death never seeing life again.
