The Last Judgment – Revelation 20:7 – 15
7 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
8 And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
9 And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
At this point in the text the earth and those living on it have enjoyed one thousand years of peace under the rule of Christ during the forced incarceration of Satan. With all his raging evil, Satan has been securely bound in the bottomless pit, restricted to his prison where he could neither deceive men nor destroy their souls.
In the passage under consideration in this article Satan will be released upon the earth for a short time. This singular act has puzzled Bible students for two millennia. To the conscience of the Christian Bible student it is an undesirable act. However God, with His superior counsel and wisdom, decrees that our adversary will be released for a brief time. On the surface of the matter we see this as a terrible thing, and for the lost it surely is, as an examination of the end result reveals the eternal doom of Satan and God’s glory.
The Loosing of Satan (Revelation 20:7)
7 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison
The Expired Time
Satan spends exactly one thousand years in the bottomless pit, bound there with a great chain during Jesus’ righteous reign. It is after this period of one thousand years of imprisonment that Satan is released once more upon the earth.
The Loose Devil
God, in His wisdom, decrees the temporary release of the devil into the material creation once more. None should question the will of God, whose ways and thoughts are higher than ours, but many students ponder to understand the purpose of such a decision. I believe the explanation lies in God’s appointed free-agency of man. In the garden of Eden God gave Adam a choice because it is in man’s willful decision to submit to God’s way and man’s informed decision to obey and serve Him that God is glorified. God has always given mankind a choice before judgment. In the prophecy of Isaiah, chapter 3 verse 13 we find, “The Lord standeth up to plead, and standeth to judge the people.” God has always warned humanity prior to judgment and pleaded for their repentance before exercising judgment. As an expression of His grace He has always been faithful to forgive any who will turn to Him.
By allowing the devil to go forth upon the earth God affords lost humanity a final choice. Man has experienced one thousand years of the rule of Jesus Christ and experienced firsthand the peace and goodness that only the rule of Christ can bring. Mankind has had every opportunity to appreciate the value of submitting to the One true God. The choice should be clear, yet in the midst of man’s knowledge God allows him free will of self-determination in the matter – freedom to choose Jesus or reject Him. Christ, in divine glory, sits on the throne of David in Jerusalem, ruling with righteousness and truth; Satan comes forth with evil intent and deception. There are no secrets or unclear choices here – mankind sees Christ exactly as He is, unveiled; likewise Satan is clearly seen for the devil he is. Men living on the earth in the flesh in that day may choose Christ or Satan, and God mercifully cries, “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else” (Isaiah 45:22), a plea again made by God through Peter as he addressed the Sanhedrin in Acts 4:11-12. Peter boldly proclaimed, “This (Jesus) is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is no other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”
The Little Season
Satan is deliberately released by God “for a little season” as we may recall from our consideration of Revelation 20:3 in the prior article. There is no need to allow Satan to continue his evil efforts indefinitely or even for a long period of time. The purpose of God will be fulfilled in a brief time span, and although the Bible does not specify this period in an increment of time as we perceive or measure it, it will be long enough for Satan to rally the ungodly living on the earth to follow him as he once more and for a final time rebels against God.
The Battle of Gog and Magog (Revelation 20:8, 9)
8 And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
9 And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
Satan’s Deception
Satan is apparently allowed to move among the people of the earth with unrestricted freedom. If anything of his nature or attitude has changed it is that his resolve to overthrow God and destroy His people has intensified during his confinement. He remains the same personification of evil he has always been and, as 1 Peter 5:8 teaches, he will continue to prowl about seeking to deceive and devour. His purpose is to rally all the forces he can possibly muster for one last attempt to overthrow Jesus’ seat on the throne in Jerusalem. Even as the man of sin had his image in the Temple for the people to worship, Satan seeks the same purpose, to establish himself as the “Most High” of Isaiah 14:14.
At the time Satan is released the population of the earth will no doubt be great in number. Since man remains a freewill agent even under the reign of Christ in the Millennium, many apparently will choose to remain unsaved by refusing to place their faith in Him, and it is from among these who are the lost of the earth – already easy prey for Satan – that he will deceive the masses and rally them for his cause.
Gog and Magog
A brief note on history might be in order here. Magog is the land of Gog, a descendant of Noah whose further descendants settled in the lands north and northeast of the Middle East and spread themselves over the land we know today as Russia. Gog appears to have been a prince among this people, or their leader. Ezekiel prophesied of Gog and Magog coming against the Jews in Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39, a prophecy referring to a time prior to the Judgment of Nations and the return of Christ. It is unlikely that Russia, historically and traditionally an ungodly nation, will survive the Judgment of Nations to occur at the end of the Millennium (Matthew 25:32). Gog and Magog here are not referring to Russia as mentioned in Ezekiel but are in this text symbolic of Satan and his army – the scene described by Ezekiel being a different event than the battle described here. We must be careful then to distinguish Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39 from Revelation chapter 20, as Ezekiel’s battle takes place prior to the millennial reign of Christ while the one John saw in Revelation chapter 20 occurs after the Millennium.
The Number of the Army
The army Satan amasses against Christ will be larger in number than we possess the capacity to comprehend. John wrote that they were “as the sand of the sea,” meaning beyond reasonable counting. Man has prolifically multiplied during the one thousand years immediately prior to Satan’s release. After the creation of man God, in Genesis 1:28, commanded Adam to “be fruitful and multiply…” Many elements associated with sin, such as the curse on the land that hindered man’s multiplying in the earth, will have been removed in the Millennium so that unlike past or even current times families will likely have large numbers of children. Man, under the conditions of Christ’s rule, will indeed be fruitful and multiply, thereby filling the earth. The resultant great population will afford Satan an extraordinary number from which to rally an army. While the availability of such a vast army is therefore not surprising, the fact that this number represents those who reject Christ’s redemptive sacrifice is both alarming and heart-breaking.
The Objective of the Army
As he rallies his army Satan has a single-minded objective – the overthrow of Christ and His kingdom established in Jerusalem – for the purpose of occupying the throne himself. He rallies his forces to take arms against and surround “the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city.” Both of these references point to the city of Jerusalem, where the saints rule and reign with Christ. Satan leads his army to encircle the city of Jerusalem as if to lay siege to it.
Fire from Heaven
The siege of Satan against the city of Jerusalem does not last for any reasonable length of time. As Satan and his army take positions around the city God sends “fire” from Heaven to consume Satan’s army. John was specific in pointing out that the “fire” was directly from God Himself rather than of natural origin, as might result from lightning or a volcano. This fire is supernatural, directly caused and sent by God. Like a sudden flash from the sky, it descends and devours the army. This annihilation will be similar to the change Paul described in 1 Corinthians 15:52 – it will take place “in the twinkling of an eye.”
All physical things at the site of the battle will be utterly destroyed. Although the purpose may be different, this event might be compared to the fire falling on the altar of Elijah at Mount Carmel as found in 1 Kings 18:38: “Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.”
Man, by making a choice to support Satan and rebel against Christ, shows himself to be inherently depraved and worthy of condemnation. The rebellion of the “little season” also proves beyond doubt that God is righteous, holy and worthy of all praise and glory.
The Defeat of the Devil (Revelation 20:10)
10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
The Devil Cast Down
With the army God destroyed having been identified by John as those who were deceived by Satan, once again God takes the devil into custody, immediately casting our adversary into the lake of fire and brimstone. In this text “brimstone” (Greek theiou, or poisonous sulfur) is added to the description of the lake of fire, emphasizing the torment of the place where Satan will forever reside.
Where the Beast and the False Prophet Are
Although Satan will be utterly lonely in the lake of fire he will not be its only resident; the beast and the false prophet will also be in the lake of fire with him. The beast is the man of sin who ruled during seven years of Tribulation, as we may recall, and the false prophet is the religious leader who supported and endorsed the man of sin. Both are described in Revelation chapter 13 as a beast, one out of the sea and the other as coming up out of the earth. We should also recall that Christ defeated the beast and the false prophet at the Battle of Armageddon and in Revelation 19:17 – 20 they both were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone.
Tormented Forever
After declaring the doom of the devil, the beast and the false prophet, John detailed their torment. This specification of punishment emphasizes the worthiness of their punishment and, as some use the phrase, ‘rubs salt into the wound.’ John wrote emphatically that they shall be tormented, implying severe pain and agony, sufficient to afflict each of them to the highest degree of suffering we might imagine and then far beyond. The Greek word here is basanithesontai, imparting the idea of an on-going and unendurable ordeal.Though day and night will not exist in the lake of fire as it does on present-day earth the phrase symbolizes that there is not a moment that passes when the torment is not felt to its full capacity. Unlike the bottomless pit where Satan was bound for only one thousand measurable years, the “lake of fire with brimstone” will keep him forever without any change in condition. The Greek phrase aiOnas tOn aiOnOn, or eons of the eons, is here indicative of eternity without duration.
The Great White Throne (Revelation 20:11)
11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
Two judgments of men are revealed in the Bible. The first is the judgment of the saved of which Paul writes 2 Corinthians 5:10, when those who have accepted Jesus as Savior will be judged according to the deeds done in their bodies in this life and is the judgment for the determination of their reward. The second judgment is the judgment of the lost, those who are unsaved because they rejected Christ. This will occur when they stand before the “great white throne” mentioned in this text, often referred to as the ‘Great White Throne Judgment.’
The Throne
John first saw “a great white throne, and him that sat on it” before he noticed anything else. This vision of the throne and the One sitting on it was so glorious that John was captivated. The throne is described as “great” for many reasons. One is because of the righteous personage sitting upon it, another because of the uncountable number of people standing before it, and also because of the dreadfully grave judgments to be pronounced from it.
The throne is “white,” meaning it is a throne where only righteousness exists and from which only righteousness rules. All judgments that come forth from this Great White Throne can and only will be true and righteous. Nothing erroneous or unjust is or may be associated with the Great White Throne.
Him That Sat on It
The Heavenly Father has given all judgment over into the hand of the Son, Jesus Christ. “For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son” (John 5:22). For this reason, the One on the throne will without doubt be Jesus, the virgin-born only begotten Son of the Father. However, in Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, as is affirmed in Colossians 2:9. The One on the throne is Jesus as the bodily representation of the divine Trinity, which also includes the Father and the Spirit.
“Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him,” Paul wrote in Philippians 2:9-11, “and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God, the Father.” For all who have failed to previously acknowledge Jesus and confess Him to be King of kings, Lord of lords, the Lamb of God, Righteous and True, the time has come. This, sadly, does not mean that they will be saved at this time on account of their professions but simply that they will admit Jesus to be who He has always been and said He is. This is the glory He deserves and that He will justly receive from every tongue.
No Place for Them
The same fire of God that destroyed Gog and Magog will destroy the physical heaven and earth. John wrote that they “fled away” and that there was found no place for them, them referring to the heaven and earth. This is the judgment mentioned in Daniel 7:9 – 14, judgment so righteous and just that heaven and earth cannot abide it.
God will melt the physical creation with fervent heat as spoken of in 2 Peter 3:7 – 10. Some suggest the creation will be melted down to its original elements as in a solution, after which God will then from that solution of elements recreate a new heaven and new earth. We will consider this topic more in our study of Revelation 21:1.
The Judgment (Revelation 12, 13)
12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
The Dead Standing Before God
After the heaven and earth fled away John saw a vision of those who would be judged. He identified them as “the dead,” those who are separated from the life of God (compare to Revelation 20:5, “the rest of the dead”). They are dead because they refused to repent of their sin and accept Christ as their Savior (John 3:18). There are no saved standing among this group – this judgment is for the unsaved only. Many of these dead have been residing in hell (see Luke 16) while others were destroyed among the army of Satan in the Battle of Gog and Magog. They all stand before the throne, and it is Jesus, the One seated upon that throne, who will determine the degree of their suffering in the eternal lake of fire which will be their ultimate and eternal abode along with the beast, the man of sin and Satan himself.
These dead are both “small and great,” as the terms apply to classes of people or the ‘mighty and the lowly’ in society. God is no respecter of persons. A poor man and a rich man stand equally before the judgment throne of God at this time.
The Book of Life
The “book of life” represents the opportunity established in eternity past by the counsel of God to sacrifice Jesus for sins and declares the opportunity for salvation to be universal. ‘Whosoever may be saved’ might then the opening declaration of the book of life. The book of life begins with every person’s name in it, affirmation that all people of all times have been afforded the opportunity to avail themselves of God’s saving grace. Only through rejection of what the book declares, correspondent to rejection of the salvation offered by Christ, can a person’s name be removed. Recall Jesus’ words to the church in Sardis in Revelation 3:5: “…and I will not blot his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.” Therefore only those who responded to the invitation of “whosoever” as in John 3:16 will be listed in the book. The final form, or list of names in this book, is referred to as the “Lamb’s book of life,” from which no name shall ever be removed (Revelation 13:8). The existence of this book is revealed here to demonstrate why these souls are condemned as it openly declares that Jesus died for all but affirms that many knowingly and willfully rejected Him.
The Books Were Opened
The “books,” more than one, are surely the books of the Bible, and the works of the dead will be judged by the standards revealed to mankind from within the Bible. The dead will receive their punishment, as John wrote, “every man according to their works.” See also Matthew 10:15, where Jesus says that even the most reprehensible cities of their day – Sodom and Gomorrah, having been wiped from the face of the earth – will have been judged less severely than these who stand before him.
The Second Death (Revelation 20:14, 15)
14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
The “second death” is called such in order to draw a contrast with the first death. God warned Adam in the Garden of Eden that if he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he would surely die (Genesis 2:17). The Hebrew text thmuth muth mm-nu suggest the translation of dying, thou shalt die from him and implies two deaths; one being the process of physical death as a result of sin’s corruption of the body and the other the eternal separation from the life of God, or a spiritual death. The first death then is when a man physically dies; the second death is when, because of his rejection of Jesus as Christ, Savior and Lord, man is pronounced eternally separated from God at the Great White Throne Judgment. The second death, then, takes full and final form in the eternal lake of fire.
Death and Hell
It is after God destroys the creation by fire and the dead stand in judgment that “death and hell” are cast into the eternal lake of fire. Spiritual death will no longer or thereafter come to any person and hell (Revelation 21:4) is assigned eternally to the lake of fire. Much like the dragon was bound in the bottomless pit for one thousand years, God binds death in the lake of fire so that it burdens His creation no more. No sin will exist in the new, refreshed creation; therefore, death will have no domain. Hell, the abode of the unsaved, shall no longer exist in its current form and all that might be associated with it are cast into the “lake of fire.”
The Lake of Fire
Revelation 19:20 is the first mention of the lake of fire in the Bible, but it is mentioned three times in chapter 20 (verses 10, 14, and 15). Seven notable facts about this place are: {1} it is likened unto a lake so as to say those within it are below the surface and completely surrounded by it. Like a fish would be surrounded by water in a lake, so the inhabitants of the lake of fire are completely engulfed by flaming torment; {2} the lake burns with fire and brimstone. The Bible should at this point be taken literally, for there is no hint of symbolism here; {3} the inhabitants are tormented day and night forever, without relief or an end of their suffering; {4} this place is utterly separated from God, Heaven, Christians, angels and anything good or godly or even comforting; {5} it is a place of eternal conditions – conditions that once established according to God’s judgment shall never change (Revelation 22:11); {6} the lake is inhabited by Satan, the beast, the false prophet and all lost humans as well as the demons who cast their lot with Satan in eternity past. Occupants who have been in hell since their physical deaths, such as was the rich man in Luke 16 with all his suffering and memories, will exist in the lake forever; {7} the occupants are in the lake for one reason only – they rejected Jesus, the Christ.
The lake of fire, as we might by now imagine, will be an unimaginably bad place to experience for even the span of a heartbeat. It will be an eternally dark place, so dark that even the flames of torment will cast no light upon its occupants. It will be totally bereft of any physical comforts, even so much as a drop of water to quench one’s eternal thirst. One will forever be aware of not only the conditions being undergone but the reason why those conditions exist and why they are being suffered. The person doomed to the lake of fire will likely be ever-afflicted psychologically by memories of each rejected opportunity to receive the Savior. In the lake of fire one will be in emotional anguish, alone and without encouragement, having the sure knowledge that the conditions they are experiencing in that moment will continue for every moment of timeless existence while they are fully aware (as was the “rich” man of Luke chapter 16) that those who embraced the salvation offered by Jesus are in a place of eternal comfort and nurturing. Take a few moments to carefully read Luke chapter 16 verses 19-31 – they are the words of Jesus spoken not as a parable but as His account of a factual event. This writer is left to concluded that even though the eternal occupants of heaven won’t be able to look ‘down’ upon those in hell or the lake of fire because to do so would cause us eternal distress on their behalf, those who dwell in hell and later the lake of fire might indeed able to look ‘up’ to see ‘what might have been’ in eternal lament.
Not Found Written
Every person makes his or her own decision whether or not to accept Christ as Savior. There is no other way to be saved except by God’s “grace through faith” in Christ (Ephesians 2:8). The book of life begins in eternity past with every person’s name written in it so as to establish every person’s opportunity to be saved by “grace through faith.” Therefore, if anyone neglects to accept that grace by placement of his or her faith in Christ, that name is blotted out of (erased from) the book of life at the end of physical life. At the Great White Throne Judgment the Lamb’s book of life – the finished product, if you will – is opened to reveal the names of all those who accepted Christ. The names of the unsaved will not be found written in that Lamb’s book of life and those people will be cast into the lake of fire which burns eternally with fire and brimstone.
Summary (Revelation 20:7 – 15)
Within the context of His eternal plan God provided for sinful man and his salvation even before Adam’s choice to disobey His command. Afterward He came to Adam in the garden of Eden and showed him that the way of salvation was only through the blood of a sacrificial lamb. Throughout the history of mankind God has continually worked to give us the gift of eternal life so that we would not have to be separated from Him.
Man was created by God with a free will to either choose or reject His plan of salvation, to pay his own debt for sin or to accept Christ’s payment on his behalf. It’s an individual choice and, sadly, many throughout the generations since have already chosen to reject Jesus Christ. Those unsaved will stand in the last judgment before the Great White Throne where Jesus, the One whom they rejected, will be their divine judge and affirm their rejection before they are cast by force into the eternal lake of fire. This is the last judgment and the second death.
This series of articles about Revelation is nearing its end. In the final two articles we will consider the new heaven, the new earth and the end of the age – wonderful indeed for those of us who believe. Before we explore those matters, though, I wish to leave you, my readers, with a serious subject to consider and a personal question to answer. When a loved one or friend passes from this world into eternity we often comfort ourselves and each other with words such as, “He’s at rest,” or “Her suffering is finally over and she’s comforted now.” If that person was a child of God then our words are indeed a form of consolation and, sad as we are for our own loss, we can celebrate the rest and comfort enjoyed by the departed. But what if we have no sure knowledge that the deceased was a child of God because he or she had never professed Christ; what if we’re certain they had repeatedly and continually rejected Him? What if, because of our complacency or timidity, our selfishness or preoccupation with worldly concerns we know that that person died in a lost condition because we failed to share with him or her the Gospel of Jesus? How broken might our hearts be on their behalf!
Here I’ll pose a more pertinent and even more personal question – do you, my dear friend, know Jesus as your personal Savior?
– Tom