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REVELATION CHAPTER 20 See previous page Rev 20,1-6 (245i) Kingdom of God >> Spirit realm imposed on the natural realm >> Literal manifestations >> Manifestation of God’s righteous judgment >> Manifestation of Jesus’ victory over sin -- These verses go with verse 10. This is one of the best ways to get a proper view of the Millennium: prepare a time capsule, bury it in a special place, and after the First Resurrection, as Christ is setting up His kingdom on the earth, go dig up your time capsule and recover whatever you put inside it for keepsake. During the Millennium immortal bodies will live in a temporal world, duel realms interacting with each other, as the only time this will ever happen. This is the process of God imposing His eternal kingdom upon the curse. Just as God spoke through His prophets and made promises that took thousands of years to materialize, so during the Millennium Christ will give His synopsis about things to come in eternity, and the time in waiting for their fulfillment will range into the millions of years, so we will forever hope for things to come. We won’t have to take notes; when the Lord speaks, His word will permanently etch into our souls like a journal, as though we kept a personal Bible in our heart. There will be sinful people on the earth during the Millennium, those who survived the Great Tribulation, who didn’t take the Mark of the Beast, nor did they believe in Jesus at the time of the First Resurrection/Rapture. They obviously believe in Him now that they have seen Him, after emerging from their hiding place in the catacombs under the holy city, so when Jesus comes to set-up His thousand-year reign, He will have a welcoming party at His arrival. He will use them as seeds to replenish the earth. At the end of the Millennium, Satan will be released, and he will gather the nations together for one last hurrah, and God will call down fire from heaven and consume His adversaries once more, which will mark the transition between time and eternity. Then, God will create a new heavens and a new earth, “in which righteousness dwells” (2Pet 3-13). See also: Remnant; Rev 20-4; 144b / Satan, Millennium; Rev 20,1-3; 15i / Expecting the Kingdom of God to appear immediately; Mat 16-23; 94p KJV WEB / Navigation Bar Rev 20,1-3 (15i) Servant >> Angels execute Judgment >> For the sake of the Church – God allowed the serpent to enter the Garden of Eden and tempt Eve to see whom Adam would obey, his wife or his maker. (God's foreknowledge already knew the answer, but He wanted Adam to know.) Adam failed the test and the entire human race inherited his sin. Ever since Adam’s transgression, God has been using this world as His testing ground to see who is worthy of eternal life. During the millennium Satan will be bound, and it will be a time of peace, prosperity and joy through Christ’s administration, proving Satan's evil influence in the world. The devil will nevertheless maintain his innocence, denying that he had anything to do with man's wars, but the devil has always been behind the scenes pressing man's buttons and pulling his levers and inciting him to destroy his fellow man. During the millennium Satan will be thrown into the abyss where he will remain for a thousand years, and after that, we would think he would humble himself, but humility is simply not in his repertoire of behaviors, though he knows that being thrown into the lake of fire as a consequence of his rebellion. Satan is incapable of repentance, nor are any of his children. See also: God used Satan to test man; 39j / Millennium; Rev 20,4-6; 50l / Adam; 185g / God judged the devil through Adam and Eve; 1The 5-9; 31a (39j) Judgment >> Jesus defeated death >> Jesus defeated this world system >> Jesus defeated Satan in the world -- These verses go with verse 10. It says about the devil in Rev 12-10,11, “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.” The devil is our spiritual opponent, the serpent of old, the one that tempted Adam and Eve to fall into sin. He has been around a long time doing his thing, and he hasn’t changed his objective or his tactics one iota. The devil hates mankind; he is jealous, because God has given us everything that once belonged to him, and far more than that. God has given us His throne that Lucifer sought when he fell into sin. For this reason Satan is insanely jealous of us and wants us all to die. Besides asking for the throne of God, had Satan one wish, he would ask to destroy the saints who are already in heaven, because we are the ones who possess his inheritance that he lost when he trespassed on God's throne (Rev 13-6). See also: God used Satan to test man; 163b / Satan tries to usurp God's throne; Rev 20,7-10; 19c (47h) Judgment >> God Judges the world >> Prison of the bottomless pit – The earth, though it is beautiful and supports life, is cursed. Imagine the earth's splendor before it was cursed. The Bible teaches that God never recalls His inheritance, “For the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable” (Rom 11-29). Instead, He removed Himself from the inheritance, so that His gifts become a curse instead of a blessing. God cursed Lucifer's inheritance, which was the entire universe by removing Himself from it. Moreover, hell is a place where God has removed all aspects of Himself, so that life as we know it cannot exist there, so in hell the inhabitants remain suspended in an eternal dying process, just as the natural realm is slowly dying. When God throws Satan into the abyss, He will throw him into his own inheritance that is cursed. See also: Hell; Rev 20-5,6; 34h / Satan; Rev 20-1,2; 46j (50l) Judgment >> Sequence of Revelations >> God puts away sin and glorifies the Church >> Satan bound for a thousand years (49g) Judgment >> God judges the world >> Enemies of God’s will are destroyed (163b) Works of the devil >> Being a slave to the devil (Addictions) >> Bondage >> Being slaves of men >> Prison – It says that after the thousand years are completed God will release the devil to test His millennial people, who will deceive the nations once more. Satan will not learn his lesson, and man will not stop following him even after living in a near perfect world for a thousand years. Perhaps the devil was sitting at the bottom of the abyss crying that he will never do it again, yet when he was released, he went right back to his old ways. Satan and his demons are incapable of repentance, and those who follow him are just like him (Jn 8-44). When God gives us new bodies in the Kingdom of Heaven, we will never again be willing or able to sin, and in the same way but opposite the wicked will never be able to repent. When people cannot repent, they become sin, just like Jesus became sin on the cross; therefore, Jesus became like those in hell. There are those who would ask, ‘Why doesn’t God just annihilate them?’ Would they tell God what He should do with His own creation? God will create whatever He wants however He wants, and if He wants to create a people in His own image who know sin and repented of it, He will; but if they rebel, how is that His fault? Even knowing beforehand what they will do, it is still not His fault. He did not create them to fail; He created them to choose. See also: God used Satan to test man; 185g / Reprobate (Man and demons think alike); Mk 12-12,13; 180e (183i) Works of the devil >> The origin of lawlessness >> Spirit of Error (Anti-Christ / Anti-Semitism) >> Spirit of the broad road >> Spirit of error will lead you astray (185g) Works of the devil >> The origin of lawlessness >> Mystery of lawlessness >> God helps Satan in the mystery of lawlessness -- These verses go with verses 7-10. Someone might ask, ‘Why didn’t God throw the devil into the bottomless pit a long time ago?’ In fact, why didn’t He do it before He made man in order to protect him from temptation? God had been using Satan ever since he sinned. He used Satan by testing Adam in the Garden of Eden, preparing man for eternity, so we will never again go the way of Satan. God created us in His image; therefore, it was necessary that we know about sin and that we be free to choose. Since we have a will, we must use it, and it is inevitable that we should use it to choose sin, just because we can. God created Adam a "perfect" man, though not perfected. God needed to test man to show there is no future in rebellion, and He couldn't just tell him this; man had to personally experience sin in order to learn this lesson. It is highly questionable had Adam not fallen into transgression that God would have been pleased, because then Adam would have had room for boasting. That is, being “tested” had little if anything to do with seeing how Adam would respond to temptation; rather, God actually wanted Adam to sin so he would get a taste of it, discover it bitter, and avoid it forever-after. He needed us to taste its bitterness, so we are no longer tempted to rebel. When He gives us new bodies that cannot sin, we will have experienced sin firsthand, thus removing all curiosity. This is the only way God could create a people who are totally free. Without the opportunity to sin God would have had to create us in a cage (the garden), and we would all line its boundaries, fingers poking through the chain-linked fence, wondering what was on the other side. As it is, though, God has removed the fence and satisfied our curiosity, and now we are completely and totally free. We now know by experience what is out there, wickedness and evil, darkness and misery; and we know we don’t want any part of it. All our questions have been answered and we are now happy to serve the Lord. The lessons we learned have been planted in our spirit and we have lost the will to rebel against God, expressed in our resurrected body, making us free indeed. See also: God used Satan to test man; Rev 20-1,2; 46j / Adam; 15i / God intended Adam to eat the forbidden fruit (He is still making man); Eph 2-6,7; 224l (218d) Sovereignty >> God overrides the will of man >> God’s will over man >> Reaping the harvest >> We choose our actions, not their consequences >> God controls the consequences of our actions Rev 20-1,2 (46j) Judgment >> Spiritual warfare >> Demons are subject to Christ -- These verses go with verse 10. Once Satan has been cast into the lake of fire, he will be subject to Christ in the most literal way. Rev 20-10 states, "And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever." Demons are subject to Christ, and this Scripture passage denotes the literal manifestation of that fact. Prior to this event, however, demons will continue to be subject to Christ through the Church, such as in exorcisms. One pictorial case was with the demon-possessed man of Gerasene (Mk 5,1-20). After Jesus cast the demons from the man, they entered the swine, and the swine perceived they were better off dead and drown themselves in the sea. Once the demons left the bodies of the pigs, they had nowhere to go, and so they freely roamed the earth in search of someone else to torment. Jesus didn’t stop them for reasons that are completely sovereign. We know that God uses the devil to test the loyalty of mankind, such as when God used Satan to test Job. So the demons frequently come in handy; God allows them to freely roam the earth and to wreak havoc along the way. We could say that God should not allow that, but the fact remains that the devil can’t do anything unless man allows him. Obedience to these spiritual entities is how they gain a foothold, but if we obey Christ, they have no leverage. See also: God used Satan to test man; Rev 20-4; 102k / Satan; Rev 20,7-10; 21h KJV WEB / Navigation Bar Rev 20-3 (132d) Temple >> Your body is the temple of God >> Holy Spirit is in God’s people >> God gives his spirit as a pledge >> His Spirit is a seal Rev 20,4-6 (50l) Judgment >> Sequence of Revelations >> God puts away sin and glorifies the Church >> Millennium – Jesus is currently establishing a spiritual kingdom on the earth, a kingdom that will eventually give way to the physical thousand-year reign of Christ, which is the first thousand years of His eternal reign. Those who died in faith since time began will come to life at the First Resurrection, and they will reign with Christ forever and ever, beginning just prior to the Millennium. There will be people who survived the horrors of endtime prophecy who never took the Mark of the Beast, who are still alive in the flesh, though there won’t be many, and they will repopulate the earth and those who were martyred during the tribulation will rule over them for a thousand years, and those who were born during the Millennium will be added to Christ’s eternal kingdom. After the thousand years are complete He will destroy this present universe and build a new on in its place and establish His kingdom on the new earth that He started in the Millennium. Then he will create a new Adam and a new Eve with no need for a garden, since there is no curse, and they will populate the new earth until they run out of room and colonize the next planet and so on. Man will take a beautiful planet and make it paradise, building civilizations where each planet has its unique culture, variations within cultures without prejudice, and there will be no war. Death will no longer exist, so people will populate the universe at an exponential rate, but it will never be filled. See also: Martyrdom; Rev 20-4; 102k / Millennium; Rev 20-4; 224f / New heavens and a new earth (Pantheism is a reality of the new creation); Mat 27-46; 26d (81a) Thy kingdom come >> Prayer >> The priesthood >> We are a type of Jesus’ priesthood – Priests are those who intercede for the people, so we will intercede for those born of mortal flesh who dwell on the earth during the Millennium. It says that those who were martyred during the tribulation will reign with Christ for a thousand years. They will be placed in higher positions of authority than saints who were not martyred. Rev 20-4 (68d) Authority >> Jesus delegates authority to execute judgment >> Against sin -- This verse goes with verse 6 (69i) Authority >> Righteous judgment (Outcome of Discernment) >> Passing judgment by the authority of God (98m) Thy kingdom come >> Endurance (Thorn in the flesh) >> Endurance invites the Holy Spirit into your life >> Endurance invites the judgment of God (102k) Thy kingdom come >> Loyalty (Faithfulness) >> Tried and true >> Loyal – Martyrdom is the ultimate test of loyalty. Those who refused to take the Mark of the Beast or worship his image and were martyred came to life at the First Resurrection and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. There are only two resurrections: that of the righteous and the wicked. Scripture in both Old and New Testaments testify that God values the physical realm over the spiritual, and for that reason if our faith doesn’t manifest, He doesn't recognize it as valid, so if they were martyred in hope of receiving an intangible kingdom, they would be of all men most to be pitied (1Cor 15-19). Our great victory is summarized in the First Resurrection; without that, not even Jesus’ crucifixion means anything. If there is no bodily resurrection, then those who are thrown into the lake of fire have no body either, and if they can’t feel the flames, then we might as well eat, drink and be merry, for there are no consequences for disobedience, but if the righteous are given bodies to enjoy God's paradise forever, then the wicked will also be given bodies to suffer hell and eternal damnation. See also: Martyrdom; 201g / God used Satan to test man; Rev 20,7-10; 65h (136ha) Temple >> Your spirit is the temple of God >> Body of Christ consists of individual members >> We are chosen members of Christ (144b) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Witnesses of Jesus >> The Church bears witness of Jesus >> It bears witness of the cross – Post-Rapture saints will be on the earth during the bowls of God’s judgment, among a lot of murderous reprobates who hate them for not taking the Mark of the Beast and for repenting of their unbelief. After the Trumpets and the Rapture, God unleashes His fury of the bowls against the whole earth, and there will be nowhere to hide, except in Jerusalem, where these saints few in number will make the dangerous migration to the holy city, held captive, ironically, by the antichrist. T hose who make it will await Christ’s arrival; finding their way will be fraught with peril. Jerusalem will be the only place on earth that God promises to protect from His plagues and from man’s wrath. To show faith they must journey to Jerusalem as Abraham did, only with the whole world against them. They will become stowaways under the holy city in the catacombs, under the failing empire of antichrist. There is a remnant mentioned (2Kings 19-31; Isaiah 10,20-22); their numbers range only in the hundreds. Look up the word “remnant” in a word concordance and view the various contexts in which it is used in the Old Testament; there was a remnant who returned to Jerusalem from Babylon. Those who survived, God had a special blessing for them, and in the last days it will be the same. He will make them seeds of His millennial kingdom to repopulate the earth. They will be the founding fathers of Christ’s millennial age, and they will be remembered as great men and women of faith. See also: Remnant; 191f / Those left behind who have not taken the mark will migrate to Jerusalem between the trumpets and the bowls; Rev 3-3; 49i (189f) Die to self (Process of substitution) >> Separation from the old man >> Martyr >> Martyrs bring about the judgment of God (191f) Die to self (Process of substitution) >> Result of putting off the old man >> Set apart >> God sanctifies us through our devotion to Him – Post-Rapture Christians are a strange bunch in that they didn’t receive the Mark of the Beast and they didn’t accept Christ as their Savior until after the Rapture, and then they realized the error of their ways and got saved. We would think that if they refused the mark that they would believe in Jesus and be constituents of the Rapture, but they were apparently undecided. Now they are still in the world after the Rapture with the bowls of God’s judgment about to fall on the earth, which will be far worse than any of the other judgments before this, worse even than the Seals and Trumpet judgments. Now to save their lives they must migrate to Jerusalem, which is the only place in the world that will receive God’s protection from the Bowls of His fierce wrath. They will find safe haven in the catacombs underneath the holy city in places where archeologists are currently disallowed to excavate. Their numbers will be few. See also: Remnant; Rev 20-7; 44d (201g) Denying Christ >> Man chooses his own destiny apart from God >> Jesus is an offense >> Jesus offends the world >> The Church offends the world – The world has always hated God; it has never understood Him throughout the generations; only a fraction of humanity will be saved, and the rest perished in their ignorance. Jesus said, “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil” (Jn 3-19). Sin leads a person to crave darkness, and what is darkness but hiding places from God. Those who were martyred after the First Resurrection will come to life and reign with Christ for a thousand years. When Christ sets up His thrown during His thousand-year reign, He will be a benevolent ruler, so that when somebody commits sin, Jesus will deal with it diplomatically. This means that when the Bible speaks about Christ ruling the nations with a rod of iron, it is referring to the great Tribulation as he defeats His enemies before He sets up His kingdom, just as King David defeated his enemies before he set up his kingdom in Jerusalem. See also: Martyrdom; 224f (224f) Kingdom of God >> Illustrating the kingdom >> Description of heaven >> The joyful kingdom >> We shall always be with the Lord – Martyrs were beheaded because they would not receive the mark of the beast or worship his image; it says they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. Paul said in 1The 4-17, “We will always be with the Lord.” God did not leave His saints in heaven but brought them with Him to enjoy the Millennium, and they will live in the Camp of the Saints (v9), adjacent to the holy city. It is called a camp because it is a temporary living arrangement throughout the Millennium. That is, a thousand years will be considered temporary once we receive our resurrected bodies. See also: Camp of the saints; Rev 20-5,6; 34h / Martyrdom; 237b / Millennium; Rev 20-6; 34d (237b) Kingdom of God >> Pursuing the kingdom >> Transferring the kingdom >> The Church is transferred to the kingdom >> The rapture >> Last trumpet – The Rapture has already occurred, and John is speaking to those who remain faithful and have seen the error of their ways. They will not have taken the Mark of the Beast, nor did they believe in Jesus and consequently missed the Rapture, but they repented of their unbelief. Those of this group who die in the Lord will be raised as late-bloomers of the First Resurrection, and they will reign with Christ for a thousand years. See also: Martyrdom; Rev 20-6; 34g Rev 20-5,6 (26b) Sin >> Consequences of sin >> Death is hell >> Sin has the sentence of hell -- These verses go with verses 11-15 (34h) Gift of God >> God is willing to Give >> The blessed First Resurrection – Going back to 1The 4,13-18, it says that the dead in Christ will rise first, and then we who remain in the flesh will be Raptured to meet the Lord in the clouds, “and thus we shall always be with the Lord.” There is only one First Resurrection and only one second resurrection and no third, and the second resurrection leads to the second death, referring to hell where its inhabitants engage in an eternal process of dying. The saints will live in the “Camp of the Saints” (v9). This camp will constitute the largest city on earth. Presently, the largest city in the world is Mexico City boasting over 50 million people. The camp of the saints will make that city look life a single family residence, located nearby Jerusalem, and will house billions of people who partook of the First Resurrection, which includes everyone throughout history who died in faith, and they will live there as citizens of His kingdom. Paul said we will always be with the Lord, and Jesus will have erected His throne in Jerusalem during His millennial reign, and we will have bodies just like His. See also: Hell; Rev 20-6; 47e / Camp of the saints; Rev 20-6; 34g KJV WEB / Navigation Bar Rev 20,6-15 (218j) Sovereignty >> God overrides the will of man >> God’s will over man >> Reaping the harvest >> Reaping the harvest in eternity Rev 20-6 (34d) Gift of God >> Believer owns everything >> New creation belongs to us – The Bible teaches that the Millennium is the beginning of God’s eternal kingdom, which has already begun in the hearts of His beloved children in this life! Jesus sent the Holy Spirit in His place who cries in our heart, “Abba Father”. The spiritual structure of His kingdom already abides in us, growing to eventually overtake this present darkness. God has called us to manifest our faith that others might believe and partake of the First Resurrection with us, and be delivered from so great a peril of death (2Cor 1-9,10). We could go back further and remember the seed that God planted in Mary, and she conceived and bore a son, Jesus, who would forgive the people their sins. We could go back still further and say that the kingdom really started with Abraham who believed God, “and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” These tiny seeds that God has planted along man’s journey have been growing for thousands of years and maturing. This age is almost over, which will usher in the Millennium, the age that man has awaited since God promised it to Abraham. See also: Martyrdom; Rev 20,4-6; 50l / Millennium; 34g (34g) Gift of God >> God is willing to Give >> He is generous with His spiritual blessings – Those who partake of the First Resurrection will experience joy that continually increases throughout eternity. Going back to Isaiah 9-7, it says that the Kingdom of God will perpetually increase in ways unimaginable. Everyone who partakes of the First Resurrection will reign with Christ for a thousand years, not just those who are martyred. It also says there is a Camp of the Saints (Rev 20-9). A camp is a temporary living quarters, which is how the saints will perceive the Millennium, a temporary situation, having received their resurrected bodies and having become immune to time and death. They dwell in the realm of eternity, though they live on a temporal planet, being the point of transition when light overtakes darkness, when righteousness overtakes sin and when eternity overtakes this temporal realm. We will have bodies during the Millennium resembling Jesus' resurrected body. The saints are anticipating the new heavens and the new earth when eternity begins in earnest. For the saints, eternity has already begun, making us the first fruits of the new creation, though we live on the same old dusty earth during the Millennium. See also: See also: Camp of the saints; Rev 20,7-10; 45l / Millennium; Rev 20,1-6; 245i (47e) Judgment >> God Judges the world >> Hell is a place of the dead – The First Resurrection is the resurrection of the saints; it says, “Over these the second death has no power.” The second death is hell, and those who partake of the second resurrection are thrown into it, being the resurrection of the damned. Jesus talked about this in the gospel of John chapter five, “An hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice and will come forth, those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, and those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment” (v29). This judgment is called the second death. It is like a person who has a terminal disease and slowly gets weaker and weaker as the disease progresses, until the body can no longer fight the disease, yet he never dies. See also: Hell; Rev 20,9-15; 47a (68d) Authority >> Jesus delegates authority to execute judgment >> Against sin -- This verse goes with verse 4 (119i) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Curse of sin is broken >> Curse of death is broken (133h) Temple >> Your body is the temple of God >> Holiness >> The body of Christ is holy >> God’s people are holy to the Lord KJV WEB / Navigation Bar Rev 20,7-10 (16g) Sin >> Man’s willingness to be evil >> Instinctively acting against righteousness – Although this is a satanically inspired plan to destroy Jesus’ empire, the people involved will be operating according to elementary principles of their flesh to form a plot against the Lord, depicting the blinding power of sin that would attempt to overthrow the Kingdom of God. (19c) Sin >> Mocking God Without a cause >> Motivated by demons – God made Lucifer steward of His entire creation, but that was not enough. Satan thinks he has it all, but what he didn’t realize when he was Lucifer, before he fell into transgression, is that he did have it all, but then he became envious of God’s throne and he wanted that too, or maybe God divulged His plan to create man and offer to seat him next to Him on His throne, and it was too much for Lucifer and he became insanely jealous. Anybody who serves and worships the devil goes insane with him, and the world is going insane for that reason, because they will not bow their knee to Christ. To the degree that people will not serve Christ is the degree they serve the devil and to that same degree they go insane. Satan didn’t just grab ten or fifteen people at the end of the Millennium; he was able to convince a number like the sand on the seashore to side with him. Man and demon apparently have much in common. Mortal man is a fallen creature, and we have an affinity for what is fallen. The demons speak our language, and we understand them, but God made us to understand Him. The demons are full of greed, lust and pride, and all they know is to steal kill and destroy, and these are all things we sadly also understand all too well. See also: Satan tries to usurp God's throne; 65a (21h) Sin >> Premeditated sin >> Having no intensions of doing the will of God – There are people alive in the world today whose minds are twisted beyond repair, who have abused their conscience to such a degree that repentance is no longer on the table for them. In Jesus’ day they were the Pharisees, of whom Jesus said, “You are of your father the devil.” Satan doesn’t have any new ideas. He might think he does, but it always ends up being the same old ones—steal, kill and destroy. This is all he knows. If he were capable of choosing a different modus operandi after being released from his prison, maybe God would not have thrown him into the lake of fire, but such alternatives are impossible for Satan; he is locked into position and can choose no other recourse other than what his evil nature dictates. He and his demons cannot be rehabilitated, and that is exactly what they say about psychopaths. See also: Satan; Rev 20,1-3; 47h (45l) Judgment >> Spiritual warfare >> Subjecting your flesh >> Satan VS the saints >> Fighting against Satan – The camp of the saints and the "beloved city" are not the same place, and of course we know that the beloved city is Jerusalem. The camp of the saints will house the saints of the First Resurrection, which includes every believer in God since Adam and Eve. It will house billions of people who have been resurrected from the dead; they are all God’s saints who will reign with Christ forever. The devil and his band of marauders will encroach the camp of the saints and the beloved city with evil intent, and fire from heaven will fall on them and destroy them, just like the war of Armageddon which was really not a war. Jesus merely spoke a word or two and they all fell down dead. The same thing will happen again. Jesus will call down fire from heaven like Elijah did against the false prophets of Baal during the reign of Ahab and Jezebel and consume them. See also: Camp of the saints; Rev 20-4; 224f (65a) Paradox >> Anomalies >> God helps Satan >> Jesus answers the devil’s prayer – Satan will be released from his prison and come out to deceive the nations once more. It says that afterward, when God is finished using him to separate his loyal servants from the subversive, He will throw the lot of them into the lake of fire, and there they "will be tormented day and night forever and ever." See also: Satan tries to usurp God's throne; 65h (65h) Paradox >> Anomalies >> Satan unites the world for the cause of deception – This passage tells about the devil, but it also tells about man's capacity for deception. After all the teaching the people of the Millennium will receive over the thousand year reign of Christ, such as the story of the Great Tribulation that will be told ten thousand times, man grew up knowing these things, yet people joined Satan's cabal of marauders just the same. They learned that the serpent would be released after a thousand years and would attempt a coup on Christ's throne, organizing a mob numbering sand on the seashore. Killing Christ on the cross blew up in Satan’s face, and any attempt to subvert His agenda will end the same way, in abject failure, and though in His heart He knows this, Satan is like a desperate criminal on the loose, willing to try anything if it holds the slightest potential for success. See also: God used Satan to test man; Rev 20-10; 245i / Satan tries to usurp God's throne; 160g (70h) Authority >> Sin of familiarity >> Familiar with the truth (enemy of discernment) >> Familiar with Jesus in the Spirit – For a thousand years mankind will have lived with God in peace. The people in the last days of the thousand-year reign of Christ will have known His ways, His grace and His justice, and they will have experienced His love and mercy, still they will form a posse to capture Him and hold Him ransom against His Father's will. Mankind has become familiar with Christ and seek war with Him. They will have become overly familiar with Him, having perceived Him as a pushover. They know that they have no chance of overtaking Him, yet they will seek to kill him anyway, because of Satan's deceptions, who is self-deceived, having lulled his own mind asleep to the fact that any attempt against Christ will fail. (93m) Thy kingdom come >> Following Jesus >> Exception >> Following evil along the broad way (160g) Works of the devil >> Satan determines the world's direction >> Led by the devil to fight against God – Satan is the origin and epitome of evil. He doesn’t really have a choice but to make an attempt on Christ’s throne. A partial explanation of this is his absolute desperation, knowing he is about to be thrown into the lake of fire where he will be tormented day and night forever and ever. For this reason Satan has been fighting against God since time began to somehow capture Jesus and hold Him ransom for the purpose of cutting a deal with the Father to be absolved of his sentence of the eternal flames of hell. It is also partly explained by greed; he wants all rule, authority and power over mankind; in essence, he wants to be like God. That is, Satan wants Jesus' power and authority, but he will not submit to the Father, so he is caught in a dichotomy of wanting something he cannot have. It is impossible for Satan to succeed, yet he tries. People are just as greedy, who also desire Christ's throne and rule with all power and authority, but if Satan didn't goad man to do this, he wouldn’t have tried. A thousand years went by and man never seriously considered mutiny; only when Satan was released from his prison did man develop the idea of forming an attempted takeover of His throne. We know that in the last days of our current age, a man will become a world dictator and will have authority over all mankind. Man has attempted this many times, creating world empires, but never succeeded over the entire world. See also: Satan tries to usurp God's throne; 170l (170l) Works of the devil >> Manifestations of the devil >> Outward appearance >> Vanity >> Vain effort >> Effort lacking direction – During the Millennium, Jesus will be here in a physical body, seemingly vulnerable to attack, having the same body of His resurrection. The devil knows that his own freedom is only temporary. He is in absolute bondage to rebellion and is incapable of genuine repentance, having a reprobate mind. He somehow believes there is an inkling of success in what he is attempting to do, though in his heart he knows any effort to subvert the throne of Christ is completely in vain, but he tries anyway because he knows nothing else. Even if he did somehow defeat Jesus and take His throne, he would then have to contend with His Father. What could Satan do to Him? See also: Satan tries to usurp God's throne; 181j (181j) Works of the devil >> The origin of lawlessness >> Deception >> Self deception >> Deceitfulness of sin – Satan is not doing this just to be rebellious or to cause trouble or wreak havoc; he is doing it to actually usurp the throne of God and take over His creation. He is completely insane, and He has the backing of a human army numbering in the millions! What does he know about managing God’s creation, and how long would it last before he destroyed everything? See also: Satan tries to usurp God's throne; Rev 20,7-9; 50l (185g) Works of the devil >> The origin of lawlessness >> Mystery of lawlessness >> God helps Satan in the mystery of lawlessness -- These verses go with verses 1-3 (186h) Works of the devil >> The result of lawlessness >> The reprobate >> Man’s role in becoming a reprobate >> Being unable to repent (199h) Denying Christ >> Man chooses his own destiny apart from God >> Rejecting Christ >> The world rejects God >> Rejecting Christ to keep the world (241f) Kingdom of God >> Opposition toward the Kingdom of God >> Hindering the kingdom >> Obstacles in the way of the kingdom >> Obstacles that keep you from Jesus (243e) Kingdom of God >> Opposition toward the Kingdom of God >> Persecuting the kingdom >> Sources of persecution >> Persecution from jealousy KJV WEB / Navigation Bar Rev 20,7-9 (50l) Judgment >> Sequence of Revelations >> God puts away sin and glorifies the Church >> Final Satanic deception – After the thousand-year reign of Christ, He will release Satan, who will gather the nations together for a last attempt on God’s throne, which proves Satan’s inability for repentance, and it proves his influence in the world throughout the millennia. For the thousand years that Satan was under lock-and-key things ran relatively smoothly, but the minute Satan was loosed, he organized an international coup against Christ's throne. Therefore, whenever we see the world organized with evil intent, we know that Satan is at work. Where do we not see organized evil in the world today? It is in the World Monetary System, in the corporate world, in government, Hollywood, the Church and everyplace in-between. There is more organized wickedness in the world than ever, and this is how we know the end is near. We look in the faces of people and see something coming more cataclysmic than anything since God created man on the earth, but they don’t know what, when or why. See also: Satan tries to usurp God's throne; Rev 20,1-3; 39j (201i) Denying Christ >> Man chooses his own destiny apart from God >> Running from God >> Man’s will over God >> Man is unwilling to repent Rev 20-7 (44d) Judgment >> Satan destroyed >> Complete >> Finish the course – The earth will be repopulated in the Millennium, but those of the First Resurrection/Rapture will not be the ones to do it (Mat 22-30). Some will neither believe in God nor take the Mark of the Beast and consequently miss the Rapture, and they will journey to Jerusalem to await Christ's return in the catacombs under Jerusalem. Their numbers will be few, and the angels will minister to them there. Watch the movie "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. See also: Remnant; Rev 20,1-6; 245i Rev 20,9-15 (47a) Judgment >> God Judges the world >> Hell is a place of sorrow >> It is a great fire prepared for the devil and his angels >> The lake of fire – The lake of fire is just that, a lake. All lakes have shorelines, and so we can assume that the lake of fire does too. It says the devil, the false prophet and the beast will all be tormented day and night in the lake of fire; they will never escape the flames, but it doesn’t necessarily say that about everybody who is thrown into it. Everybody will have sinned in different amounts and will therefore have different levels of judgment and consequently sentenced to different levels of torment in hell, and their bodies will determine the level of torment they receive. Since they loved their lives in the flesh, God will give them a body of flesh that can experience pain and suffering, but the fire does not destroy them, nor can they die. Their bodies may gasp for breath, but the air will be filled with sulfurous smoke. These levels of judgment will be regulated by the weight of sin each person carries, acting like anchors that will pull them into the flaming quagmire, some to the bottom of the lake where it is the hottest, where they will remain forever. Others with a lesser weight of sin may even float on top of the lake and able to swim to shore, where their eternity in hell will continue. On shore they will get as far away from the lake as possible, and the darkness will be thick enough to cut with a knife. On shore they will encounter other problems. For example, there will always be the dread of being thrown back into the lake by a fellow inmate. Plus, there will be creeping things similar to the locusts that crawled from the abyss and sought those who took the Mark of the Beast and stung them who worshipped his image. The smallest advantage, such as a cave, will be highly coveted, and competition for it will be intense. See also: Hell; Rev 20-9,10; 104e / Levels of judgment in hell; Rev 20-9,10; 104e Rev 20-9,10 (104e) Thy kingdom come >> Purifying process >> Purified by fire >> Hell is an eternal purifying process -- These verses go with verses 14&15. God has prepared a lake, made of liquid-hot magma, and He will throw those into it who love evil more than good. There are levels of judgment in hell, and Satan will receive the greatest judgment of all, yet he is thrown into the same lake of fire with the other condemned souls, so how will he be judged more severely? Partly the answer to that is in the level of fear he experiences. However much a person sins determines the degree of his fear, according to 1 Jn 4-18, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.” Since the devil has done the most sinning, he has the most to fear, which correlates with suffering and madness. He will be driven insane with fear, tormented day and night forever and ever, so was it worth it? Obviously not! People have consequences for the things they do; they build jails and throw criminals behind bars, and God has consequences prepared for sinners who side with the devil that far exceed any consequences man can charge against his fellow man. You say, 'It is unjust for God to send someone to hell when He is unwilling to go there Himself.' Have you never heard that God dwells in smoke and fire? What about Moses' burning bush, what about Mount Sinai associated with smoke and fire, wasn't it that every time God visited man He dwelled in smoke and fire? God did this because He has always dwelled in smoke and fire from eternity past, but when He created the Lake of Fire and threw those into it that belonged there, He stopped dwelling in smoke and fire and let those take His place in eternity future. So, was God in any torment? No, "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has punishment. He who fears is not made perfect in love" (1Jn 4-18). See also: Levels of judgment in hell; Rev 20,10-15; 50m KJV WEB / Navigation Bar Rev 20-9 (218b) Sovereignty >> God overrides the will of man >> God’s will over man >> You cannot control the judgment of God >> You cannot control how God responds to rebellion Rev 20,10-15 (50m) Judgment >> Sequence of Revelations >> God puts away sin and glorifies the Church >> White-throne judgment - Lake of fire ( the second death) – Everybody is rounded up and throne into the lake of fire, who is not a member of heaven. The Bible indicates multiple levels of judgment (See: 48d), but there is only one lake of fire, so how are these levels of judgment achieved? One theory is that everybody commits various levels of sin, and at the judgment God converts each person’s sin into a specific weight assigned to him before he is throne into the lake of fire. Heavy weights pull the sinner deep into the liquid-hot magma, while lighter weights allow the sinner to float. Since it is a lake, it must have a shoreline, where lighter weighted sinners can swim to shore, leaving the heavy-weighted sinners to burn forever in the lake of fire. Here is what Isaiah 66,22-24 says about it, “Then they will go forth and look On the corpses of the men Who have transgressed against Me. For their worm will not die and their fire will not be quenched; and they will be an abhorrence to all mankind.” This passage in Isaiah says that the children of God will assemble in Jerusalem at certain seasons to worship God, and part of the itinerary is to look down a porthole to see those suffering in hell, suggesting that hell will be under their feet, at the center of the new earth. Those who can swim to shore and find a cave or some place to hide will need to fend off others who want the same spot, so they will endlessly squabble over little crevices and makeshift shelters. Those with the lesser sin will find it easier to dominate those with greater weights of sin, proposing a role reversal from the days of their flesh, when in this life those of greater sin lorded over others. There are other creatures in hell, spider-like locusts that when they sting, make the victims wish for death (Rev 9,1-12), and there is always a looming fear of being thrown back into the lake of fire by a fellow resident. Nevertheless, they prefer hell over the prospect of sharing heaven with a lot of Christians who find no greater joy than to worship God. The White Throne Judgment was a worse experience than hell itself, so stressful that hell is actually a reprieve from the presence of God. See also: Hell; Rev 20,11-15; 26b / Levels of judgment in hell; Rev 20,11-15; 48c / More sin, worse hell; 1Cor 15,50-58; 119i Rev 20-10 (39j) Judgment >> Jesus defeated death >> Jesus defeated this world system >> Jesus defeated Satan in the world -- This verse goes with verses 1-3. The lake of fire is the devil’s greatest fear and it came upon just as him as Proverbs 10-24 said it would, "What the wicked fears will come upon him, But the desire of the righteous will be granted." He had been dreading this for millennia, and his moment finally came. His anguish since he fell into transgression, mixed with insanity produced a mental toxin that has eaten away all logic and common sense, proving that it is good not to be the devil or to serve him. His fear reached crescendo as the angel grabbed him by the tail and flung him into the lake of fire. To look down and see this foul creature, once a monster that deceived the nations, squirming in his sin, tormented day and night forever and ever, his smallness is immediately apparent. (46j) Judgment >> Spiritual warfare >> Demons are subject to Christ -- This verse goes with verses 1,2 (163d) Works of the devil >> Being a slave to the devil (Addictions) >> Bondage >> Being slaves of men >> Bondage makes you a victim of God’s judgment (245i) Kingdom of God >> Spirit realm imposed on the natural realm >> Literal manifestations >> Manifestation of God’s righteous judgment >> Manifestation of Jesus’ victory over sin -- This verse goes with verses 1-3. God was done using Satan, except to showcase him as the ultimate consequence of rebellion. Sin has finally come to an end and God will never test or refine His creation again, for God threw His testing instrument into the fire. See also: God used Satan to test man; Rev 20,1-3; 15i KJV WEB / Navigation Bar Rev 20,11-15 (25k) Sin >> Consequences of sin >> Dead in sin >> The human condition without Christ – John saw the dead, the great and the small. The wicked are defined by the fact that their fleshly bodies have evicted them, having no place to go but darkness that mocks their blackened hearts. Their former bodies have rejected them and now God has rejected them as a manifestation of their internal condition. They are the living dead, zombies, the stuff of nightmares and horror movies. They were spiritually dead while living in the flesh, having rejected the grace of God, and now they are physically dead, and at the second resurrection God will give them bodies that conform to their blackened souls, so they remain dead, though they can still move and speak and have thoughts. They scream in horror at their grotesque neighbors, fearing they look the same. (26b) Sin >> Consequences of sin >> Death is hell >> Sin has the sentence of hell -- These verses go with verses 5&6. Death and Hades are a holding tank for those who don't belong in heaven, waiting to be judged at the White Throne Judgment, and then sent to their final destination in the lake of fire. Hades was the place where the rich man went in the story of Lazarus. In Lk 16-22,23 it says, “The rich man also died and was buried." Other translations use the word Hades instead of hell, equating it with the place of the dead. It is a place of torment like the lake of fire, yet these are two different places. The lake of fire is called the second death; it is the place where people never stop dying. As we know about death in this life, the body gets sicker until it can no longer live and the person breaths his last. The second death is similar, except that the person never reaches final death. Everybody who has lived and died, whose name is not written in the book of life, will find his place in the lake of fire. It isn’t designed for the worst cuprites, but for anybody who has rejected the grace of God. “If anyone’s name was not written in the book of life, he was throne into the lake of fire.” See also: Hell; 38j (38j) Judgment >> Jesus defeated death >> Resurrection of the wicked – Speaking of the new creation, Rev 21-4 says, “The first things have passed away.” In other words, death has died. However, those in hell will continue dying forever. We were born and matured into adulthood, got old, and eventually we will die. The entire lifecycle is a death process. Therefore, people in hell keep getting older, but they never die. They are stuck in a perpetual process of dying. The person who says, ‘I don’t want anything to do with God,’ has put himself in a most horrible situation. God will say, ‘Okay, if you don’t want anything to do with Me, then you can't have anything that is part of Me, such as a cold glass of water or a beautiful sunset. God will remove every aspect of Himself from that person, and after God takes everything, the only thing left is death and hell. God did not add a curse to the creation; He subtracted Himself, and the more He removes Himself from His creation, the more it resembles hell. See also: Hell; 48c (40g) Judgment >> Judgment of Christ >> God’s word judges the world >> It does not believe in Him – If we removed this passage from the Bible, we would never know there was a Great White Throne Judgment, since this is the only place it is mentioned, and if there were no White Throne judgment, there would be no reason for unbelievers to fear God or their eternal future. This is the one thing that every person should fear who doesn’t believe in Jesus. Whether they admit it or not, they know judgment is coming. It says that heaven and earth fled away; there were no stars, no planets or moon, just the Son of God and the wicked, contrasting their darkness with blinding light. They are in front of "Him with whom they have to do" (Heb 4-13) and they still can’t see Him. Each person is in space, equidistant from each other, the distance between them so great it appears they are alone with God. There is no place to hide; every person who ever lived who didn’t believe in God will be around Christ, and they will feel completely alone, and Christ will judge them all at once for everything they said and did. The only thing they brought with them was their memories of past sins, which is so deeply burned into their souls they don’t remember anything else, and Christ will judge them according to the things that are written in the books. (47i) Eternal Judgment (Key verse) (48c) Judgment >> God judges the world >> Eternal judgment of the resurrection – Hell is a horrible existence that will never end, but to its inhabitants it is better than heaven, because God is there; to them His presence is worse than hell. There are many gods in hell, but there is only one God in heaven, and its inhabitants continually rejoice and worshipping Him forever and ever, and there is no sin. To those who have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb worshipping God is heavenly, but the damned view it as worse than hell! They would actually prefer hell than to worship God. This perspective affords us a view of hell that is actually a place of mercy. Someone might ask why God doesn’t just annihilate them. Perhaps they would rather continue existing, even if it must be in hell. We have a strong instinct to survive, so maybe we have an even stronger instinct to exist? Remember that people in hell think they are gods. How could a god no longer exist? Besides, God made them eternal beings in His own image. Just because they won’t serve Him is no reason to reward them with annihilation. See also: Hell; Rev 20-14,15; 245g / Levels of judgment in hell; Rev 20,9-15; 47a / Trust God's judgment regarding hell; Rev 19-3; 245g (49j) Judgment >> Judgment day >> The open books of the white throne judgment – God will judge each person separately but simultaneously according to two books: the book that was common to all who are enrolled in heaven, which is the Lamb's Book of Life, and another book that contains all the sins that a person has committed throughout his life, and God will judge them according to those books. Those who have faithfully gone to church every week but never wanted anything to do with God will protest, ‘I served you my whole life!’ and God will turn the pages of the book of life to the place where the sinner's name should have been written, and when God doesn't find it, the person is barred from heaven. The book of life is the final authority; it is the attendance roster of those who are enrolled in heaven, and it was filled out with names before the foundation of the world. There are no mistakes in it; there are no names accidentally deleted or missing. The Lamb's Book of Life stands as a separate witness against him, as Moses wrote in the law, “A single witness shall not rise up against a man on account of any iniquity or any sin which he has committed; on the evidence of two or three witnesses a matter shall be confirmed” (Deuteronomy 19-15). The book of deeds judges them for their commission of sin, while the book of life judges them for their omission of righteousness. All three members of the trinity will testify against him: the book of deeds represents the testimony of the Holy Spirit, who sees, hears and records all things, the Lamb's Book of Life represents the testimony of the Father, who has predestined certain people to eternal life, while Christ stands against them in judgment having suffered for their sins to no avail. (52e) Judgment >> Judging the Church with the world >> Law judges sin >> God judges the lost through the law – It says that God destroyed this present universe before He created a new one, and it was between the old and the new creation that God conducted His White Throne Judgment. Since heaven and earth fled away, they found themselves floating in space as it were. In fact, there might not have even been any space, since scientists say that space is a thing, in contrast to the more traditional view that space is the absence of all things. They were incomprehensibly nowhere, existing outside space and time, the only entity in existence with God. They couldn’t hide behind a tree or rock. If they thought they would run from God, it would be like running from the sun. The only way to avoid God is to turn their backs on Him, which is how they ended-up there in the first place. (90k) Thy kingdom come >> Keeping the law >> Unless you keep the law you will not see heaven (212h) Sovereignty >> God is infinite >> God is all knowing >> Nothing hidden >> God exposes things hidden in darkness Rev 20-11,12 (49g) Judgment Day (Key verse) Rev 20-11 (203a) Denying Christ >> Running from God >> Wicked men cannot approach the throne of God >> God chases them away from His presence (245g) Kingdom of God >> Spirit realm imposed on the natural realm >> Literal manifestations >> Manifestation of God’s righteous judgment -- This verse goes with verses 14&15. The White Throne Judgment will occur after the Millennium and before the new creation. God will destroy this present universe and create a new one in its place, so the White Throne Judgment will occur between the old and new creations. No one knows how much time will be involved. We will see first hand the gift we received in the grace of God that we are not standing among the condemned. Had Jesus not ransomed us from Satan’s power and delivered us from the Father’s vengeance against sin, no one would walk on the heavenly streets of gold. KJV WEB / Navigation Bar Rev 20,12-15 (219hh) Sovereignty >> God overrides the will of man >> The elect >> God chooses us as we choose ourselves >> The Lamb's book of life Rev 20-12 (55j) Paradox >> Opposites >> Life judges death (220a) Sovereignty >> God overrides the will of man >> Predestination >> Predestined before the foundation of the world -- This verse goes with verse 15. The book of life was written before the foundation of the world. It has always been and it will always be. It is eternal. God has always known those who are His. (239b) Kingdom of God >> Pursuing the kingdom >> Pursuing the knowledge of the kingdom >> Teachers >> Teachers "remind" their students >> Recalling the circumstances (250i) Priorities >> God’s prerequisites >> Lists >> List of traits that can be found in man >> List of deeds of the body Rev 20-14,15 (104e) Thy kingdom come >> Purifying process >> Purified by fire >> Hell is an eternal purifying process -- These verses go with verses 9&10. (245g) Kingdom of God >> Spirit realm imposed on the natural realm >> Literal manifestations >> Manifestation of God’s righteous judgment -- These verses go with verse 11. The saints will get a first-hand look at God’s judgment, for we will stand as witnesses at the White Throne Judgment. We will be involved (Mat 19-28) and witness what God does with the wicked who died outside faith in God, who will face eternity without Christ. Billions of people have accumulated throughout the age of mankind extending all the way back to Adam and Eve. This judgment will be an incredible lesson for us as He picks their defense apart and assigns each person a place in the eternal dwellings (Mat 24-51). We will be stunned that they deserve hell, a sentence that not even the meanest psychopath would impose on His victims; not even Satan himself is this cruel. However, this has to do with God's sovereignty as He subjects His creation to His authority. Many people don't believe in hell; they simply don’t agree with God about this, and for this reason, because they didn't trust in His righteous judgment so as to be saved, they are going there. Faith in God is a major obstacle to them, but if we don’t believe in God’s judgment, we cannot believe in His grace and mercy either, for these too are one and the same. To sentence people to hell for ten years or a thousand years would be harsh, but to sentence them for eternity is unimaginable, but this is how God feels about sin. Outside of Christ there is no remedy for rebellion against God’s authority. He is unwilling to end their existence after He has created them eternal spirits, so they must continue to exist somewhere, but not in His domain. God will subject His creation to His absolute authority, for this is the kind of God we serve. See also: Hell; Rev 20,1-3; 47h Rev 20-15 (220a) Sovereignty >> God overrides the will of man >> Predestination >> Predestined before the foundation of the world -- This verse goes with verse 12 (250k) Priorities >> God’s prerequisites >> Lists >> Terms of graduating to the next level >> List of spiritual traits in descending order See next page