Revelation 20:4: And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

When Christ begins his millennial reign on earth,¹ he will not rule alone.² John saw thrones,³ and they that sat upon them ... lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.⁴ Those that live and reign with Christ are resurrected and exalted⁵ saints⁶ that have the same glory as Christ.⁷ These saints come forth in the morning of the first resurrection,⁸ which includes the first fruits that rose from the dead with Christ in the meridian of time,⁹ those that rise from their graves to meet Christ in the clouds at his Second Coming,¹⁰ and those that resurrect to an exalted state at any time during the millennium.¹¹ They include the 144,000 Servants¹² that stand with Christ on mount Zion, which is also called the heavenly city of New Jerusalem.¹³ They are redeemed members of the Church of the Firstborn from all nations.¹⁴ They will literally live again after their death¹⁵ to reign as kings and queens with Christ a thousand years.¹⁶ He will be the King of these kings¹⁷ and the Lord of these lords.¹⁸

Before exalted saints can ascend to their millennial thrones, they must first have judgment ... given unto them.¹⁹ This means they will be judged²⁰ when they resurrect from the grave.²¹ Based on the judgment given unto them at that time, they will come forth in the morning of the first resurrection²² because they are judged worthy of exaltation.²³

After exaltation-worthy saints resurrect and are seated upon their thrones, they have judgment... given unto them²⁴ again in the sense that they will be given power²⁵ to judge others.²⁶ They will be part of a hierarchy of judges²⁷ that administer judgment during the millennium.²⁸ This hierarchy of judges will include Christ's quorum of faithful apostles,²⁹ who will judge righteous members of the twelve tribes of Israel.³⁰ The hierarchy will also include the twelve Nephite disciples who will judge Lehi's righteous descendants that lived upon the American continent.³¹ These, and many other priesthood holders,³² will sit upon thrones of judgment.³³ They will also sit on thrones to rule in Christ's earthly theocratic government³⁴ over both political and spiritual matters throughout the millennium.³⁵ Christ alone, however, will judge the wicked.³⁶

John refers to the exalted saints seated on thrones as souls.³⁷ They include the souls of martyred saints from the fifth seal that John saw under the altar in Revelation 6:9.³⁸ The scriptures define a soul as a physical body joined with the inner spirit that gives it life.³⁹ By definition, the saints that John saw on thrones are souls because their inner spirits are inseparably joined to their glorified bodies in their resurrected state.⁴⁰

In Revelation 20:4, John saw the resurrected souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus. This means they were martyrs for Christ from all ages of time⁴¹ and in many different circumstances.⁴² All such people will sit upon thrones of glory during the millennium.⁴³ This verse alludes to beheadings that were commonly carried out as a form of execution in the Roman Empire⁴⁴ during the fifth seal in the time of Christ.⁴⁵ This imagery may be literal in the case of the Two Witnesses that will be martyred in the streets of Jerusalem,⁴⁶ followed by their resurrection 3½ days later at Christ's Second Coming.⁴⁷ More generally, however, the imagery includes all saints who give their lives in the service of God.⁴⁸

The righteous saints that reign on thrones during the millennium also include those that had not worshipped the beast, neither his image.⁴⁹ In other words, they are people who keep the commandments and endure to the end.⁵⁰ This distinguishes them from wicked people that worship the First or Second Beasts, as described by John in Revelation chapter 13.⁵¹ Worshipers of the beast include the mortal sons of perdition that receive the mark of the beast upon their foreheads and telestial-worthy people that receive the mark of the beast in their hands.⁵² Both wicked groups of people will be resurrected during the second resurrection of the unjust after the millennium and after the little season at the end of the earth.⁵³