Prophecy Home Page | Rapture | Tribulation Period | Second Coming of Christ | Millennium | Final Revolt of Satan The Final Revolt of Satan
"And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, 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. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city..." (Rev. 20:7-9)
Dr. J. Vernon McGee writes the following words concerning these verses:
"When the late Dr. Chafer (founder of Dallas Theological Seminary) was once asked why God loosed Satan after he once had him bound, he replied, 'If you will tell me why God let him loose in the first place, I will tell you why God lets him loose a second time.' Apparently Satan is released at the end of the Millennium to reveal that the ideal conditions of the kingdom, under the personal reign of Christ, do not change the human heart. This reveals the enormity of the enmity of man against God. Scripture is accurate when it describes the heart as 'desperately wicked' and incurably so. Man is totally depraved. The loosing of Satan at the end of the 1000 years proves it." (Reveling Through Revelation, p. 74,75) We have already discussed the purposes accomplished by the sacrifices during the millennium. Apparently millions of maturing children will view these sacrifices and hear the tender salvation plea of the priests, but will stubbornly harden their sinful hearts. The fact that earth's mighty King at Jerusalem once bled as a lowly Lamb at Calvary will mean absolutely nothing to them. Outwardly they will conform, but inwardly they will despise.
Finally, at the end of the millennium, the world will be offered for the first time in ten centuries "a choice, and not an echo." Millions will make a foolish and fatal choice. Dr. J. Dwight Pentecost quotes F.C. Jennings, who writes:
"Has human nature changed, at least apart from sovereign grace? Is the carnal mind at last friendship with God? Have a thousand years of absolute power and absolute benevolence, both in unchecked activity, done away with all war forever and forever? These questions must be marked by a practical test. Let Satan be loosed once more from his prison. Let him range once more earth's smiling fields that he knew of old. He saw them last soaked with blood and flooded with tears, the evidence and accomplishments of his own reign; he sees them now 'laughing with abundance'....But as he pursues his way further from Jerusalem, the center of this blessedness, these tokens become fainter, until, in the faroff 'corner of the earth,' they cease altogether, for he finds myriads who have instinctively shrunk from close contact with that holy center, and are not unprepared once more to be deceived." (Pentecost, Things to Come, p. 549) However, this insane and immoral insurrection is doomed to utter and complete failure. As a war correspondent, the Apostle John duly records this final battle:
"...and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. 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" (Rev. 20:9,10). Obviously this battle, referred to as Gog and Magog, is not the same as the one in Ezekiel 38 and 39.
The Great White Throne Judgment
1. The fact of this throne (Heb. 9:27)"And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them; and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire" (Rev. 20:11-15). "I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of Days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool; his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him; thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten-thousand times ten-thousand stood before him; the judgment was set, and the books were opened" (Dan. 7:9,10). 2. The judge of this throne - Christ himself.
"For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son...and hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man" (John 5:22,27). "Him God raised up the third day, and showed him openly...And he commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead" (Acts 10:40,42). "I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom..." (2 Tim. 4:1). 3. The jury at this throne - five sets of books.
A. The book of conscience (Rom. 2:15). Although man's conscience is not an infallible guide, he will nevertheless be condemned by those occasions when he deliberately violated it.
B. The book of words."But I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned" (Mt. 12:36,37).
C. The book of secret words."God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ" (Rom. 2:16). "For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil" (Eccl. 12:14).
D. The book of public works."...whose end shall be according to their works" (2 Cor. 11:15). "For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works" (Mt. 16:27).
E. The book of life (Ex. 32:32,33; Ps. 69:28; Dan. 12:1; Phil. 4:3; Rev. 3:5; 13:8; 17:8; 20:12,15; 21:27; 22:19).4. The judged at this throne. As previously discussed, only unsaved people will stand before this throne. "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God" (Ps. 9:17).
5. The judgment at this throne - the eternal Lake of Fire (Mt. 25:41,46; Rev. 20:14,15).
The Destruction of the Present Earth
and it's Surrounding Heavens
1. The fact of this destruction."Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away" (Mt. 24:35). "Thou, Lord, in the beginning has laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of thine hands; they shall perish, but thou remainest; and they shall all wax old as doth a garment, and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed; but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail" (Heb. 1:10-12). "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up" (2 Peter 3:10,11). 2. The reason for this destruction. At this stage in the Bible the final rebellion has been put down, the false prophet, the antichrist, and the devil himself are all in the lake of fire forever, and the wicked dead have been judged. In light of this, why the necessity for this awesome destruction?
Suppose a vandal were to pour crankcase oil on stacks of gold and silver. In this illustration, the vandal represent the devil, the crankcase oil would stand for sin, and the gold and silver for God's perfect creation. God will someday arrest the devil, of course, and forever confine him to prison. But what about the oily sin-stains that remain on his gold and silver creation? To solve this problem, God does what the Fort Knox authorities might consider doing in such a case - he purges the stains in a fiery wash. And it works. For the hotter flame, the more rapidly the oil evaporates, and the brighter the gold becomes.
God will someday do to creation what he did to his beloved Israel in the Old Testament: "Behold, I have refined thee...I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction" (Isa. 48:10).
Creation of A New Heaven and Earth
"For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind" (Isa. 65:17)."For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I shall make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain" (Isa. 66:22).
"Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness" (2 Peter 3:13).
"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea" (Rev. 21:1).
Some see this world as the last of six worlds. These would include:
1. The original world (Gen. 1:1).
2. The pre-flood world (Gen. 3:6 - 7:10).
3. The present world (Gen. 9:1-17; Rom. 8:19-22).
4. The tribulational world (Isa. 24; Rev. 6-19).
5. The millennial world (Isa. 35).
6. The new world (Rev. 21-22).
Return to the Prophecy Home Page
Prophecy Home Page | Rapture | Tribulation Period | Second Coming of Christ | Millennium | Final Revolt of Satan