Revelation 20

Revelation 20:1

20:1 Before the Millennium begins, Satan must be restrained. To accomplish this, an angel comes down from heaven with the key to the abyss and a huge chain in his hand. In one sense, our Lord bound Satan when He came to earth (Mat_12:29). So this is another stage in His binding. 20:2 The angel seized Satan and bound him for a thousand years. John lists four names of the tempter: dragon, serpent, Devil (accuser), and Satan (adversary). 20:3 During the Millennium, the archenemy is confined to the bottomless pit. The abyss is sealed so that he cannot go forth to deceive the nations. Toward the end of Christ’s Reign, he will be released for his last brief rebellion (vv. 7-10). 20:4 John now sees people enthroned in heaven with authority to rule. These are saints of the Church Age who will reign with Christ as His Bride. John also sees a company of martyrs, who had refused to take the mark of the beast. These are clearly tribulation saints who died for their faith. Both companies will reign with Christ during the golden age of peace and prosperity. 20:5 The first part of verse 5 must be understood as a parenthesis. The rest of the dead refers to unbelievers of all ages who will be raised at the end of the Millennium to stand before the Judgment of the Great White Throne. The statement This is the first resurrection refers back to verse 4. The first resurrection is not a single event. It describes the resurrection of the righteous at various times. It includes the resurrection of Christ (1Co_15:23), the resurrection of those who are Christ’s when He raptures the church (1Th_4:13-18), the resurrection of the two witnesses whose bodies will lie in the streets (Rev_11:11), and the resurrection of tribulation saints who are described here (see also Dan_12:2 a). In other words, the first resurrection includes the resurrection of Christ and of all true believers, though they are raised at different times. It occurs in several stages. 20:6 Those who participate in the first resurrection are blessed because they will not be included in the second death, when all unbelievers will be cast into the lake of fire (v. 14). True believers shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with Him a thousand years. 20:7, 8 When the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from confinement, and will go out to the four corners of the earth in order to deceive the nations that are hostile to Christ, here called Gog and Magog. This reference to Gog and Magog must not be confused with a similar reference in Ezekiel 38 and 39. There Magog is a great land north of Israel, and Gog is its ruler. Here the words refer to the nations of the world in general. In Ezekiel, the setting is premillennial; here it is postmillennial. 20:9 After recruiting an army of ungodly rebels, the devil marches against Jerusalem, the beloved city. But fire comes down from God out of heaven and consumes the troops.

Revelation 20:10

M. The Judgment of Satan and All Unbelievers (20:10-15) 20:10 The devil himself is cast into the lake of fire to join the beast and the false prophet. It may seem surprising that Satan would be able to assemble an army of unbelievers at the end of the Millennium. However, it should be remembered that all children born during Christ’s Reign will be born in sin and will need to be saved. Not all will accept Him as rightful King, and these will scatter throughout the earth, trying to get as far away from Jerusalem as possible. Note that the beast and the false prophet are still in hell after one thousand years. This disproves the doctrine of annihilation, as does the statement, And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. 20:11 Next we are introduced to the great white throne judgment. It is great because of the issues involved and white because of the perfection and purity of the decisions handed down. The Lord Jesus is sitting as Judge (Joh_5:22, Joh_5:27). The expression from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away indicates that this judgment takes place in eternity, after the destruction of the present creation (2Pe_3:10). 20:12 The dead, small and great, stand before God. These are the unbelievers of all ages. Two sets of books are opened. The Book of Life contains the names of all who have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. The other books contain a detailed record of the works of the unsaved. No one who appears at this judgment is registered in the Book of Life. The fact that his name is missing condemns him, but the record of his evil works determines the degree of his punishment. 20:13 The sea will yield up the bodies of those who have been buried in it. The graves, here represented by Death, will deliver up the bodies of all the unsaved who have been interred. Hades will give up the souls of all who died in unbelief. The bodies and souls will be reunited to stand before the Judge. Just as there will be degrees of reward in heaven, so there will be degrees of punishment in hell. This will be based on their works. 20:14 When we read that Death and Hades are cast into the lake of fire, it means the complete persons: spirit, soul, and body. The text explains that this is the second death, and the NKJV margin adds, the lake of fire. There is a difference between Hades and hell. For the unconverted who have died, Hades is a disembodied state of conscious punishment. It is a sort of holding tank, an intermediate condition where they await the Judgment of the Great White Throne. For believers who have died, Hades is a state of disembodied blessedness in heaven, awaiting the resurrection and glorification of the body. When Jesus died, He went to Paradise (Luk_23:43), which Paul equates with the third heaven (2Co_12:2, 2Co_12:4), the dwelling place of God. In Act_2:27 the Lord’s disembodied state is called Hades. God did not leave His soul in Hades, but clothed it with a glorified body. Hell is the final prison of the wicked dead. It is the same as the lake of fire, Gehenna, and the second death. 20:15 The deciding factor at this judgment is whether one’s name is written in the Book of Life. Actually if a person’s name had been inscribed there, he would have already been a part of the first resurrection. So this verse applies only to those who stand before the Great White Throne.