Transcript

One father wrote this, I remember taking my youngest son to one of the national art galleries in Washington, D.C. As we made our approach, I was so excited about what we were going to see. He was decidedly unexcited.

But I just knew that, once inside, he would have his mind blown and would thank me for what I had done for him that day.

As it turned out, his mind wasn’t blown; it wasn’t even activated. I saw things of such stunning beauty that brought me to the edge of tears. He yawned, moaned, and complained his way through gallery after gallery.

With every new gallery, I was enthralled, but each time we walked into a new art space, he begged me to leave. He was surrounded by glory but saw none of it.

He stood in the middle of wonders but was bored out of his mind. His eyes worked well, but his heart was stone blind. He saw everything, but he saw nothing.

This will be the case for those who are born in and live during the Millennial Kingdom and do not believe in Christ. They will be surrounded by glory, but see none of it.

They will stand in the middle of wonders and miss it. They will see everything, but their heart will be stone blind, and they will see nothing.

It’s difficult to fathom, but although they will have lived in the most ideal conditions mankind could ever imagine, with a Perfect Ruler ruling over them, they will reject Christ and not believe He is the Messiah and the Son of God.

And at the close of the kingdom they will rise up in rebellion against Him.

Revelation 20:7: “And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison.”

After going into great detail about the 7 year Tribulation in this Book, John does not write of the details of the Millennial Kingdom. This is not necessary, because these details can be found throughout the writings of the Old Testament prophets.

John, however, does give the important detail that during the 1000-year Kingdom, Satan and his host will have been firmly bound in the bottomless pit (Rev. 20:1-3).

There will be no activity, no interference, and no opposition from Satan during Christ’s millennial reign.

The release of Satan after 1000 years is anticipated in verse 3 of this chapter: “And cast him [Satan] 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.”

In verse 7, at the close of the Millennium, we see the loosing of Satan for “a little season” being fulfilled. It’s important to note that Satan does not escape. He will “be loosed out of his prison” by God’s permission and according to His sovereign will.

The “prison” (v. 7) he will be loosed from is “the bottomless pit” (v. 3), in the center of the earth into which Satan will have been cast and bound for 1000 years.

By virtue of the Lord’s teaching about the harvest time of the beginning of the Millennium in Matthew 13, and the separation of the wheat (or believers) being gathered into the barn of the kingdom and the tares (or unbelievers) being bound and burned, we learn by this that only believers in the true Messiah will enter the Kingdom.

Those who survive the Tribulation period and are granted entrance into Christ’s Kingdom will enter in their natural bodies. And they will still possess a sin nature. These people will marry and have children in the Kingdom.

And then, as one commentator rightly put it, “And as all parents have done since the Fall, they will pass that sin nature on to their offspring. Each successive generation through the thousand years will be made up of sinners in need of salvation.”

During the Millennium, there will be a mixture of people on earth: people in resurrected, immortal bodies and people in their natural, mortal bodies; believers in both resurrected bodies and natural bodies who cannot and will not sin; and unbelievers in their natural bodies who will sin.

Even without Satan’s temptations to doubt God and disobey His will for 1000 years, there will be sin and rebellion in the Kingdom and Christ will have enemies.

Psalm 110:2 reads, “The LORD shall send the rod of Thy strength out of Zion: rule Thou in the midst of Thine enemies.”

These enemies that Christ will rule in the midst of will be the offspring of those believers who initially enter the Millennium in their natural bodies with an old sin nature.

Over a 1000-year time period, a vast number of people will be born. Think of how many people have been born between 1021 and now in 2021!

The offspring of those who initially enter into the Kingdom will be responsible to trust Christ and believe “the gospel of the kingdom” for themselves.

All these millennial generations must believe that the King in Jerusalem is “the Christ, the Son of the living God” and they must confess their sins, and be water baptized to be saved and to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

According to Zechariah, many will indeed respond to the gospel and be saved from among the nations: “And many nations shall be joined to the LORD in that day, and shall be My people: and I will dwell in the midst of thee” (Zech. 2:11).

However, the majority of any generation does not believe, and that will be the case in the Kingdom. Even during the glorious conditions of the world: peace, righteousness, economic and agricultural abundance, and Satan being bound, mankind will not believe in Christ and will sin and rebel against God.

But it’s not completely surprising that mankind fails in this environment, because even in the perfect conditions of the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve rebelled against God.

The unregenerate of that Kingdom period will reluctantly, mostly by fear of force, submit themselves to the righteous rule of Christ. Psalm 66:3 tells us, “through the greatness of Thy power shall Thine enemies SUBMIT themselves unto Thee.”

While unbelievers will outwardly conform and submit themselves to the King, they will reject Him in their hearts.

Bible expositor William Hoste aptly sums up man’s spiritual condition, made apparent during the millennial reign: “The kingdom will last a thousand years, during which righteousness will reign, and peace, prosperity, and the knowledge of God be universally enjoyed. But this will not entail universal conversion.

“Will not a thousand years under the beneficent sway of Christ, will they not have radically changed for the better, and become by the altered conditions of life and the absence of Satanic temptations, children of God and lovers of His will?

“It will be proved once more than man whatever his advantages and environment, apart from the grace of God and the new birth, remains at heart only evil and at enmity with God.”

Scripture paints a true and honest picture of man, that he’s a wicked, evil, unrighteous, unregenerate sinner who needs Christ and the grace of God. The Millennium eliminates all excuses for man’s behavior.

The continued unbelief and wickedness, even in ideal conditions without the influence of the devil, is to make mankind realize that the bottom line problem is: self.

Since the beginning, in the Garden of Eden, mankind has liked to shift blame. Adam blamed Eve for his sin; Eve blamed the serpent (Gen. 3:12,13).

Man does not and has never liked to take personal responsibility for his actions.

People want to play the blame game and blame society, poverty, illness, or political conditions for why they fail, and sin, and behave so wickedly. Like Eve, many still like to blame the devil and say, “The devil made me do it!”

But during this time of Christ’s reign, when all these issues are resolved, when Satan is bound and there is no outside temptation to sin, and society is a utopia, there is no poverty, there is complete healing for illnesses, and there is a perfect government in place, it leaves no excuse for man’s behavior.

And you’re left with only ONE reason for why man continues to be evil and wicked: his own heart. Man’s sinful heart will be fully exposed in that day.

It is a time that will demonstrate the truth of Jeremiah 17:9: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”

At the end of the millennial reign of Christ, when Satan is loosed, he will have a world of countless unbelievers who are ready and eagerly awaiting the chance to rebel against the King. Satan will provide the supernatural leadership to bring them together as they rise up as one against Christ.

Revelation 20:8: “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.”

On the other side of the Kingdom, after 1000 years, we find that Satan is just as wicked as ever. His character and goals are unchanged: he is still in opposition to God and he still desires to deceive the nations.

We also see that mankind’s sinful, disobedient character is unchanged, for the Millennium will produce a great multitude of unbelievers, “the number of whom,” John writes, will be like “the sand of the sea.”

The population of the earth will have been greatly diminished during the Tribulation period. However, as a result of a perfect environment and the longevity of life restored as at the beginning of history, the population will explode, mankind will fill the earth, and people will be spread out “in the four quarters of the earth.”

The “four quarters [or corners] of the earth” refers to the four points of a magnetic compass: north, south, east and west. People will be spread out all over the globe.

Satan’s deception of people and nations in the four corners of the earth also teaches us that there will be unbelievers all over the world in the Kingdom.

The number which do not believe and are deceived into rebelling and coming to the battle of Gog and Magog are practically innumerable: “as the sand of the sea.”

“As the sand of the sea” is a figure of speech in the Bible used to describe a vast host, a seemingly innumerable company of people.

This great multitude of people who do not believe and who rebel against the King will all have been born and raised in flawless circumstances. All they will have ever known in their lives is peace, prosperity, and a perfect Ruler reigning over them.

They will never experience a time of war. They will have no knowledge of what injustice is or means. They’ll never know want or see people in need. They’ll never have experienced fear of predatory animals.

Yet they will harden their hearts and they will not believe in Christ, the benevolent One Who will have graciously and generously provided this beautiful environment for them.

At the end of the 1000-year Kingdom, these descendants of the Tribulation survivors will be tested. And when given the opportunity, they will show their true colors and rise up in rebellion against the very One Who could save them.

A customs officer once observed a truck pulling up at the border. Suspicious, he ordered the driver out and searched the vehicle. He pulled off the panels, bumpers, and wheel cases but didn’t find a single scrap of contraband, whereupon, still suspicious, but at a loss to know where else to search, he waved the driver through.

The next week, the same driver arrived. Again the official searched, and again finds nothing wrong or illegal.

Over the years, the official tried full-body searches, X rays, and sonar, anything he could think of, and each week the same man drove up, but no mysterious cargo ever appeared, and each time, reluctantly, the customs man waved the driver on.

Finally, after many years, the officer was about to retire. The driver pulled up. “I know you’re a smuggler,” the customs officer said.

“Don’t bother denying it. But I cannot figure out what you’ve been smuggling all these years. I’m retiring now. I swear to you I can do you no harm. Will you please tell me what you’ve been smuggling all this time?” And the driver responded, “Trucks.”

People have a way of missing the obvious and what’s right in front of them. That will be the case for unbelievers in the earthly kingdom.

After the Millennium, when Satan is loosed from his prison in the unseen world for “a little season,” he will find fertile soil in which to sow seeds of deception and rebellion against Christ.

Prior to his imprisonment, the devil was known as the one “which deceiveth the whole world” (Rev. 12:9). After 1000 years, with unbridled pride and an unchanged character, he will “deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth.”

He, with his demonic horde, will delude the nations just once more. Their rage carries them to the 4 corners of the earth to deceive all unbelievers in the Kingdom.

Their deception is sure to be an appeal to people’s wicked desires, arousing a hope of revolution in their hearts that they could and should overthrow the Kingdom of Christ on earth.

Satan will deceive unbelieving people into thinking there is strength in numbers, that if they come together with the largest army ever assembled in history, they cannot and will not be stopped. He will deceive them into thinking that they will actually prevail against Christ and His Kingdom.

But these people are a good illustration of unbelieving mankind as described in Ephesians 4:18: “Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart.”

It is darkened understanding, ignorance, and blindness for them to think that they will prevail against Christ, the “Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the Ending, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty” (Rev. 1:8).

In Revelation 20:8, the title “Gog and Magog” is used to describe the enemies of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In Ezekiel 38 and 39, there is an account of a battle with Gog and Magog: “Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal” (Ezek. 38:2,3).

In this prophecy, “Gog” is the name of the captain, the leader from “the land of Magog,” which was the name of a people of the north. Gog is the ruler; Magog refers to the people. Thus, figuratively, the title of “Gog and Magog” is a general, symbolic title that refers to the enemies of God and their leader.

In verse 8 we read that the final battle will be a battle against GOG, the leader behind the scenes of this great host: “SATAN shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive…”; and also against MAGOG: “the NATIONS which are in the four quarters of the earth.” Satan is Gog and the nations are Magog.

By his deception of the nations, Satan gathers “them together to battle.” The rebel army will be gathered, readied, organized, and poised to fight against the King of kings in the last conflict, the battle to end all battles.

Revelation 20:9: “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.”

People will come in droves for as far as the eye can see and they will band together as one. The battle pits the kingdom of darkness versus the kingdom of light.

Revelation 20:9 says, “And they went up.” Topographically, Jerusalem is “up.” Its elevation is around 2500 feet above sea level. The Bible often speaks about going “up” to Jerusalem.

This army will come “up” to Jerusalem “on the breadth of the earth.” The expression “the breadth of the land” occurs in Habbakuk 1:6 in a description of the invasion of the Chaldeans. In Habakkuk, “the breadth of the land” means the entire extent of it, that the Chaldeans would spread over the whole country of Israel.

That is the idea in Revelation 20 as well. This extensive and worldwide army will spread all over the land of Israel, in and all around Jerusalem.

As they come up from all directions and swarm the land of Israel they “compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city.” They come “up” in siege fashion. They compass, or surround, “the camp of the saints.”

They will surround them for miles in all directions. Christ permits this army to assemble and encircle Jerusalem and His people.

The Greek word translated “camp” is elsewhere translated as “castle” or “armies.” It refers to “an organized structure or system for military defense.”

This is a fascinating and beautiful picture. It seems that the saints of God will know based on this passage of Scripture, that this revolt is going to occur at the end of the Millennium and they will make camp around Jerusalem for its defense.

Out of love for God’s “beloved city,” and even more so out of love for their beloved King, the Lord Jesus Christ, they come to put themselves between the city and this evil army of rebels.

The “beloved city” is Jerusalem. God delights in Jerusalem. Psalm 87:2,3 reads, “The LORD loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God.”

Jerusalem is the target for this satanically-spurred army. You see this multitude’s, and ultimately Satan’s, strategy: if they can defeat Christ’s capital city, the center of the worldwide Kingdom, the Kingdom will collapse and they will have their victory.

They obviously will have some clue of Christ’s power in that they know it will take a huge army to accomplish their purpose. Still, they overestimate their power and underestimate God’s. Their pride will prove fatal.

Then Henry Morris said it so well: “And now, finally, after ages of grace and patience and mercy, God’s longsuffering comes to an end.

“When mankind is so quick to rebel against Him even after a thousand years of an all-but-perfect world, providing every material blessing and even the personal presence of Christ Himself, there is nothing else that the Lord can do to encourage and draw men to receive Himself as Savior.

“With all the greatest gifts of His love repudiated, and with multitudes choosing to follow Satan instead, God will finally ring down the curtain.”

As the storm clouds of war begin to gather, the Father sends fire down from heaven which utterly obliterates His enemies in the sight of the saints. The battle isn’t a battle; it’s an execution! It’s wholly one-sided.

No sooner will this great multitude assemble and surround the people of God in Jerusalem than fire will come raining down on them from above and they will be completely consumed in a second of time by the almighty power of God. The last great battle that will ever take place on the face of the earth will be over in an instant.

Fire rains “down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.” These flames from God in heaven will consume and devour the bodies of all of them.

They will all be killed and utterly destroyed. There won’t be anything left of them. There won’t be anything to bury! And their spirits will immediately be cast into hades, in the center of the earth, into the torments of the fire there.

Within a brief period of time, this unbelieving multitude will go from fire at the battle with Gog and Magog, to fire in hades, to everlasting fire in the Lake of Fire.

When verse 3 said that Satan “MUST be loosed for a little season,” this was the purpose for it and God’s sovereign plan. He is loosed by God from the bottomless pit to purge out the unbelieving prior to the eternal state.

Revelation 20:10: “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.”

After the battle with Gog and Magog, Satan will be dealt his final fatal blow: he will be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone forever and ever.

Satan knows this verse of Scripture. He knows it, but he doesn’t believe it. Just like the unbelief of the people in millennium is remarkable, so too is Satan’s unbelief at God’s Word.

Satan wars ferociously and unceasingly against God, His people, and His plans and purposes, battling against this verse of Scripture ever being fulfilled.

But it will happen. Satan’s doom is sure. God’s Word is faithful and true. Everything will be fulfilled to the letter, just as God has said.

After the unbelieving host is destroyed by fire, they are temporarily cast into the fires of hades, the temporary place of torment. But their leader, “the devil that deceived them” is cast for eternity into the Lake of Fire, the eternal place of torment.

One last mention is made of the devil being a deceiver. Here at the end of time, he is still the great deceiver, and a colossal failure.

The one he has deceived the most is himself! What he fully believed will not happen, will happen. He will be cast into the Lake of Fire for eternity.

And so Satan and his demonic host will never deceive anyone ever again. Satan and his demons will be removed from the scene forever. There is no concern in the eternal state, whether in heaven or on earth, that there will ever be deception again.

There will be no more lies, no more half-truths, no more error. God’s people will only experience the truth of God and the goodness of God forever and ever.

Satan and all his evil host will be consigned to the fearsome and literal lake of fire and brimstone. During His earthly ministry, the Lord said that the “everlasting fire” of the Lake of Fire was originally “prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt. 25:41).

The Lake of Fire is a place that was created and prepared specifically for them, and it is at this point that they will take residence in it and inhabit it forever. It is an eternal and irreversible sentence.

Prior to the Millennium, Satan’s two evil human accomplices were “cast alive” into the Lake of Fire. One thousand years later, verse 10 shows that the Antichrist and the false prophet are still there, and still in torment.

Satan will be cast into the same literal fiery lake to join these two evil men, to be “tormented day and night for ever and ever.”