12:2 awake. This is an explicit promise of the future bodily resurrection of the dead, as recorded in one of the key prophetic books on the Old Testament. This is not, as some claim, a strictly New Testament doctrine. At this point (as in John 5:29), however, the thousand-year time interval between the resurrection of the saved and lost is not mentioned, since it is not relevant to the context and also (in view of the following verse) inconsequential in relation to eternity (Revelation 20:4-6).

12:2 everlasting contempt. Those who now look with contempt on the Bible and Biblical Christianity will eventually experience “everlasting contempt” on themselves—as well as “everlasting fire” (Matthew 25:41), and “everlasting destruction” (II Thessalonians 1:9).