I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Revelation 20-22.

As I read this passage, it is unclear to me how literally we should take where it says that those who receive the first resurrection are those beheaded for their testimony about Jesus.  I am quite confident that the first resurrection is not limited to only those beheaded because of their faith in Christ.  I believe that the first resurrection includes all of those who were killed for their faith in Jesus.  However, I am not sure that the first resurrection does not include all who died while putting their faith in Christ.  Having said that I come to my main point on the description of those who experience the first resurrection.  The wording implies to me that everything which came before does not apply to a singular set of events future to when this was written.  Instead, all of the vision before this represents a picture of what each and every person faces throughout life (with perhaps some representation of the cycles which we see in history).  In particular, the Mark of Beast does not represent a particular time in the future when people will have literal marks in order to buy and sell things (although, I would still be very wary of things which fit that description).  Instead, it represents compromises of following our faith which everyone of us faces throughout our lives.  Do we compromise with evil in order to put food on the table?