Transcript

In December 1995, American Airlines Flight 965 departed from Miami on a regularly scheduled trip to Cali, Columbia. On the landing approach, the pilot of the 757 needed to select the next radio navigation fix, named Rozo.

He entered an “R” into his navigation computer. The computer returned a list of nearby navigation fixes starting with “R,” and the pilot selected the first of these, whose latitude and longitude appeared to be correct.

Unfortunately, instead of Rozo, the pilot selected Romeo, 132 miles to the northeast. The jet was southbound, descending into a valley that runs north-south, and any lateral deviation was dangerous. Following indications on the flight computer, the pilots began an easterly turn and slammed into a granite peak at 10,000 feet.

One hundred and fifty-two passengers and all eight crewmembers aboard perished. Four passengers survived with serious injuries.

The National Transportation Safety Board investigated, and declared the problem human error. The navigational aid the pilots were following was valid but not for the landing procedure at Cali. In the literal definition of the phrase, this was indeed human error, because the pilot selected the wrong fix.

The front panel of the airplane’s navigation computer showed the currently selected navigation fix and a course deviation indicator.

When the plane is on course, the needle is centered, but the needle gives no indication whatsoever about the correctness of the selected radio beacon. The gauge looks pretty much the same just before landing as it does just before crashing.

The computer told the pilot he was tracking precisely to the beacon he had selected. Unfortunately, it neglected to tell him the beacon he selected was a fatal choice.

Because of the devil’s work in this world, he has put so many false beliefs into this world that millions upon millions make fatal choices and track to the wrong beacon for their eternal destiny. It results in their everlasting destruction in hell.

The only beacon that brings us safely home is the Lord Jesus Christ, and faith alone in His death, burial, and resurrection, that He died for my sins, and rose again. We must make the correct choice to trust Him alone as our personal Savior.

When we think of the chaos, confusion, temptations, deception, opposition against God, broken families, corrupt governments that all grips this world, much of which is the result of Satan’s work, it is very comforting to know that the devil’s days are numbered.

God is in control. And He will have the final say over the devil. Satan himself has made a fatal choice in rebelling against God. Satan at first will be bound for 1000 years, and then he will be cast into the lake of fire to suffer in torment there forever.

Beginning with this episode, we’ll begin a series called “scenes from the final act,” which are the events that the Apostle John saw leading up to and then into the eternal state as recorded in the last 3 chapters of the Bible.

Revelation 20:1: “And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.”

In this scene, John saw an angel descend from heaven with a key and a chain in his hand. Although the Apostle John does not identify this particular angel, in all probability it will be Michael the Archangel.

It is Michael and his angels who will cast Satan and his angels to earth 3 1/2 years earlier in the Tribulation period as Revelation 12:7-9 teaches.

Because Satan had been cast down to the earth, the angel in verse 1 must “come down from heaven” to the earth. This is a reminder to us of Satan’s demotion and humiliation, and he’s about to experience further humiliation.

Teaching us that it is not necessary for Christ in His infinite strength to throw Satan into the bottomless pit, He invests authority in one of his angels to do the work.

This is another way that Satan is disgraced. Any and every possible way he is disgraced we should be glad.

At this time in the events of the Tribulation period, all unbelievers will either have been killed at the Battle of Armageddon or have been cast into “everlasting fire” at the Judgment of the Nations as recorded in Matthew 25:41-46.

The beast and the false prophet will have already been thrown into the lake of fire after the Battle of Armageddon, making them its first two inhabitants.

All those in rebellion against the King of Israel, must be removed before Christ sets up His worldwide kingdom. The last step before the establishment of Christ’s earthly kingdom is the removal of the foremost rebel, the devil and his demonic host.

What this teaches is that Christ will reign on the earth without any opposition from supernatural enemies. Before the nations can be freed from the control of the Devil in the kingdom, he must first be bound.

John records that the archangel is bearing “the key” to the bottomless pit and “a great chain.” This indicates that he has delegated authority to bind Satan and cast him into the bottomless pit.

Christ said in Revelation 1:18 that He had the “keys” of hades: “I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell [hades] and of death.”

The Lord Jesus Christ has the “keys” for hades and the bottomless pit and He can give them to whomever He chooses.

Like the keys we use daily to enter our houses and workplaces, this “key” for the bottomless pit is for the purpose of opening and locking.

The archangel has the key and he is granted the power by Christ to open the bottomless pit and to lock and bind Satan inside it for 1000 years.

Although the demonic host is not mentioned specifically in Revelation 20:1-3, the binding of Satan assures that all those under his command will also be bound.

We see from an account in the Gospels that the demons expected and feared this reality of being bound in the bottomless pit. During our Lord’s earthly ministry, He traveled to Gadara and met the crazed man who had a legion of demons in him.

At this encounter, the demons in the man caused him to cry out to the Lord: “What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? ART THOU COME HITHER TO TORMENT US BEFORE THE TIME?” (Matt. 8:29).

In Luke’s account of this miracle, the demons in the man “besought Him that He would not command them to go out into the deep [abyss]” (Luke 8:31).

Knowing of His power and authority as God and their Creator, and that He could send them any place He wanted to, the demons can only BEG the Lord to not incarcerate them in “the deep,” in hades in the center of the earth.

All the demons cast with Satan into the bottomless pit after Armageddon will not be able to break the “great chain” that will bind them for 1000 years, and it is because they will be held there by the almighty power of God.

Demons don’t want to be locked in that pit in torment. They have long feared being cast into the abyss. After the Battle of Armageddon those fears will be realized.

The intention of the “great chain” is not to represent Satan and his demons as just being restricted but that they are rendered completely inactive. Satan’s influence will not be lessened, it will be nonexistent during the millennial reign of Christ.

Revelation 20:2: “And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years.”

This series of names for our enemy, “dragon, that old serpent…the Devil, and Satan” point to different features of our enemy’s evil character and teach us about his tactics.

“Dragon” is a title given to him twelve times in Revelation. It speaks of his cruelty and murderous ways.

John 8:44 says that “He is a murderer from the beginning.” The title “dragon” refers to the ferocity with which he persecutes the people of God.

Revelation 12:17 reads, “And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.”

A fierce persecution by the dragon against God’s people, Israel, will take place in the future Tribulation, and his persecution takes place around the world today against God’s people, the Body of Christ, in the dispensation of grace.

The Center for the Study of Global Christianity, an academic research center that monitors worldwide demographic trends in Christianity, estimates that between the years 2005 and 2015, 900,000 Christians were martyred. This is an average of 90,000 Christians each year. Open Doors also documented a total of 1,329 churches attacked worldwide for faith-related reasons between Nov. 1, 2015, and Oct. 31, 2016.

We need to be in prayer for the Church as a whole and for those in countries where the practice of their faith is life-threatening.

We face rejection, ridicule, and mocking for our faith in Christ in the United States. Laws are formed which are in opposition to God’s Word and prayer. But the day is coming when we will likely face the exact same grave dangers others around the world face for their faith: imprisonment, beatings, torture, violence, executions.

“The dragon,” is the god of this world, and this is the direction we should expect that he will drive things and not be surprised when it happens.

Revelation 20:2 also calls him “that old serpent.” This title takes us back to the beginning, to the garden of Eden, and Satan’s temptation of our first parents, Adam and Eve.

“That old serpent” refers to his guile and the poisonous deception by which he has operated from the beginning until this moment. John 8:44 adds that: “…there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.”

Revelation 12:9 says of him, “And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent…which deceiveth the whole world.” The old serpent is “old” and has deceived mankind for thousands of years, since the beginning.

A basketball fan at the Portland airport awaited the arrival of the Trailblazers following a victory over the Lakers and attempted to scalp a couple of tickets to the next game. As the shyster wormed through the crowd, he located a well-dressed man who listened to his offer. “How much?” asked the gentleman.

“One hundred fifty bucks,” the scalper replied under his breath. “Do you realize you’re talking to a plainclothes officer of the law?” the man asked. “I’m going to turn you in.”

Suddenly the seller began to backpedal. He talked about how large a family he had, how much they needed him, how he’d never do it again. “Just hand over the tickets and we’ll call it even,” said the well-dressed man. “And I’d better never catch you here again!”

But the worst was yet to come. The man was no officer at all. He was just a quick-thinking guy who used a little ingenuity to rip off two choice seats to the next playoff game (which he anonymously admitted in the local newspaper several days later).

Likewise, Satan is deceptive and tries to rip us off, and because of the relentless activity of “that old serpent” and his wicked host, there is much deception in this world.

We need to be cautious and on guard with the things we hear and read. There are dangerous teachings around us at all times.

“Devil” is another name for the one who will be bound 1000 years. “Devil” is the Greek word diabolos. It signifies how he is a false accuser or slanderer.

In Revelation 12:10, we read, “And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.”

In the book of Job, we see Satan doing this very thing. The accuser of the brethren believed Job would curse God to His face if the Lord’s hand of blessing was taken away and he lost his loved ones and earthly possessions.

But Job never did curse God, not during his time of deep grief, not when his friends questioned him and accused him of having done something wrong that brought this calamity on himself, and not even when his wife encouraged him to curse God (Job 2:9).

The devil, the accuser of the brethren, wants to have something evil that can be said of every believer in Christ, in order to accuse and discredit us and destroy our testimonies for Christ. There are countless examples of those in the Church who have fallen by the wayside, victims of temptation, false doctrine, and worldliness.

“Satan” means adversary or to set oneself in opposition to another. Satan is diametrically opposed to all that is good and all that is God’s. He is the enemy of God, His Son, and all God’s people from both programs of God, prophecy and mystery.

Under God’s earthly prophecy program in the past, Satan was the adversary of the nation Israel (1 Chron. 21:1), and he will be again in the future Tribulation period.

Under God’s heavenly mystery program, he is the adversary of the Church, the Body of Christ, in the present dispensation of the grace of God (Eph. 6:12).

Satan hates and opposes God’s plans for the earth and believing Israel who will inhabit it forever. And Satan hates and opposes God’s plans for the heavens and the members of the Body of Christ who will inhabit it forever.

The name “Satan” teaches, he is God’s enemy. That being so, for believers, he is our enemy. It’s good to hate him. As Satan opposes God, he attacks God through us. For this reason, we need to heed the instruction to “Put on the whole armor of God” (Eph. 6:11).

Now let’s stop and put all these names and titles together. The one who is bound for 1000 years is: “the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan.”

By the titles and names of the devil you learn about the things that will not be present on the earth during the millennial reign of Christ, as a result of Satan being bound during this time.

There will be no spiritual influence by “the dragon” to bring about the cruel persecution of God’s people. There won’t be temptations or poisonous deceptions through error and lies by “that old serpent.”

The “devil,” the false accuser, won’t be active trying to manipulate and lead people to fall into sin, to be able to accuse them and destroy their testimonies. “Satan” won’t be around to bring about spiritual opposition to God and His plans and purposes.

The prophetic Scriptures teach us many things that will be present during Christ’s earthly reign: the whole earth will be full of His glory, there will be peace on earth, and righteousness, justice, and equity will pervade all things.

In Revelation 20:1-3, we also learn what the earthly kingdom will be like thru the binding of Satan and the conspicuous absence of his wicked influences and activities.

His presence and influence will not in any sense be felt during the earthly kingdom reign of Jesus Christ. This will result in global transformation. Christ’s presence and the devil’s absence will make it heaven on earth!

While the kingdom has been revealed since the foundation of the world, the Apostle John is the first to tell us that the duration of the “golden age” will be 1,000 years.

This is the first mention of it in Revelation 20. A 1000-year duration of the reign of Christ on the earth was never foretold by the prophets and is not found anywhere else in God’s Word.

Instead what you find in prophecy is that the kingdom is said to be an everlasting kingdom. Daniel 2:44 says, “And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people and it shall stand for ever” (cf. Luke 1:32,33).

When Christ establishes an earthly kingdom it will last forever. But the Book of Revelation reveals additional details about the everlasting kingdom that the prophets never talked about. And one of those details is the millennial aspect, that the first 1000 years would be separated from the rest of the everlasting kingdom.

Revelation 20-21 details events between the 1000 years and the eternal state. In between are the events of the loosing of Satan, the deception of the nations, the battle of Gog and Magog, the Great White Throne, and the passing away of the first heaven and first earth and the creation of the New Heavens and New Earth.

And there are differences between the two parts of the everlasting kingdom, the 1000-year kingdom and the eternal state, and the prophecies and teaching for them.

For instance, when Psalm 110:2 talks about the second coming and the kingdom, and says, “Rule Thou in the midst of Thine enemies” it is speaking of the initial 1000 years. This, of course, won’t apply to the eternal state.

There will also be sin during the millennial reign by unbelievers. Christ will reign as King over the nations with a “rod of iron” and deal with sin swiftly and He “shall execute judgment and justice in the earth” (Jer. 23:5).

But during the eternal state of the kingdom, sin will have been purged from the universe as a result of Satan and his host and all unbelievers being cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, and with the renovation of the heavens and earth by fire.

Revelation 20:3: “And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.”

Unlike the Antichrist and the False Prophet (Rev. 19:20), Satan is not cast into the lake of fire after the Battle of Armageddon. Though that is coming (Rev. 20:7). Satan is first cast into “the bottomless pit” in the center of the earth.

The location of the “bottomless pit” is clearly defined for us in the Word of God. The unseen world known as hades in the Scriptures has a region called the bottomless pit, which is the translation of the Greek word abyss.

Isaiah also speaks of the binding of Satan in the abyss during the millennium when he states: “Yet thou [Lucifer] shalt be brought down to hell [sheol/hades], to the sides of the pit. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms…?” (Isa. 14:15-17).

When he is confined to hades, he will be an object of astonishment.

The inhabitants of hades, even in their torment, will marvel when they see him, that this was the one that shook kingdoms?

They will be amazed that the one who was seemingly so powerful as to make the earth tremble, has been brought so low. Lucifer being cast into the pit will be the most startling event that the underworld has ever known.

Satan has worked behind the scenes for millennia, deceiving and corrupting the world with his lies, but his days are numbered. People often talk about the way things in this world should be. One of the main reasons why this world is not as it should be, will be removed by Christ prior to His millennial reign.

For one thousand years Satan will be confined to the infernal region below. And when Christ reigns, without the influence of the devil, this world will be as it should be.

Satan will be seized and hurled into the center of earth by the archangel, and he will be bound there by a “great chain,” and sealed in the pit.

After the Savior’s death on the cross, a seal was placed on the stone at the entrance of Christ’s tomb. Matthew 27:66 says, “So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, SEALING the stone, and setting a watch.”

But on resurrection morning, the seal was broken and the stone was rolled away, because Christ had conquered the grave. That seal could never have kept Him in that tomb. He is “the Resurrection, and the Life” (John 11:25). He has power over death.

A “seal” will be set upon the devil when he is shut in the bottomless pit. Demonstrating that he is a created being, he is powerless to break that seal.

William Gurnall, writes, “When God says ‘Stay!’ [Satan] must stand like a dog by the table while the saints feast on God’s comfort. He does not dare to snatch even a tidbit, for the Master’s eye is always upon him.”

God will tell Satan to “stay” in the bottomless pit for 1000 yrs. And he will “stay.”

If Satan could break this seal he absolutely would. He will have 1000 years to try to break it, but he will not. This shows that we who believe and are on the Lord’s side are on the side of power, victory, and hope.

Those who are outside of Christ are on the side of weakness, defeat, hopelessness. By faith in Christ alone, the unbelieving can be rescued and “delivered from the power [domain] of darkness” and be “translated into the kingdom of His dear Son” (Col. 1:13).

Satan being unable to break his seal in the bottomless pit, assures us that he cannot and will never break OUR seal.

Ephesians 1:13 reads, “In Whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in Whom also after that ye believed, ye were SEALED with that Holy Spirit of promise.”

Satan can do nothing about our salvation and eternal security in Christ. We are sealed in Christ by the Holy Spirit. And Satan can’t do a thing about that seal.

The divine seal placed upon Satan by God ensures that he will no longer deceive the nations during the 1000 years of Christ’s earthly kingdom.

Satan will be sealed in his prison giving blessed relief to the earth and its inhabitants. As Satan is locked up, the whole world will be set free from his deceits and wiles.

After the 1000-year phase of Christ’s earthly kingdom is “fulfilled he must be loosed a little season.” Satan will not be rehabilitated during his 1000-year sentence. God reveals to us that Satan’s nature will not change even after 10 centuries of confinement.

He will remain proud, defiant, and at enmity against God. His hatred of God is only further kindled after the 1000 years.

The loosing of Satan for a short time is part of God’s sovereign plan. It says “he MUST be loosed.” Everything God does is good and righteous. This has a purpose. God gives the human race a final chance after Christ’s earthly reign to choose.

Mankind has a free will and at the close of the millennium just prior to the eternal state, God gives the inhabitants of Christ’s earthly kingdom who will be born during the kingdom the right to choose to believe in Christ or reject Him.

But how about you right now? Have you trusted in Christ as your personal Savior?