Verses 1, 2: And I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold of the dragon the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan and bound him for a thousand years.
When Jesus was casting out demons from a man who had a legion of demons inside him, the demons begged Him not to send them to the bottomless pit (Luke 8:31). They asked Him if He had come to torment them before their time (Matthew 8:29). They knew they were destined to go to the bottomless pit one day. But they also knew that that time had not yet come then.
But here we see that that time has finally come!! Satan and all his demons are now bound for a thousand years in this bottomless pit.
Verse 3: And threw him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he should not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be released for a short time.
At one time, Lucifer had been the head of the angels. But now one of the junior angels comes and locks him up!!
We see four stages in Satan's fall.
From the third heaven to the second heaven (Isaiah 14:12-15).
From the second heaven to the earth (Revelation 12:9).
From the earth into the bottomless pit (Revelation 20:1-3).
Into the lake of fire forever (Revelation 20:10).
In contrast to this, we see Jesus Who humbled Himself and came down from heaven and descended into the lower parts of the earth, being raised up and ascending to the throne of God.
He who exalts himself, will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted. There are two spirits operating in the world - one seeking to go down and humble itself constantly, and the other seeking to go up and exalt itself constantly. All of us are being influenced by one of these two spirits.
The devil is locked up here so that he should not deceive anyone. Notice that the emphasis here is on his deceiving people and not on his torturing them. Many people are afraid of the devil harming them physically. But God's Word warns us much more against his deceiving us. Jesus told us not to be afraid of those who can only kill our bodies. We are warned to be careful of Satan's wiles and his deception. The magic spells of Babylon are more dangerous than its persecutions.
This 1000-year reign of Jesus can be likened to the sabbath rest that God ordained for man. God ordained for Adam that he should labour for six days and rest on the seventh day. 2 Peter 3:8 tells us that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years. So, 6 days will be 6000 years. This is almost the period that man has lived on earth from Adam's time until now. So we must be very close now to the 7th day - the 7th millennium (1000 years) of rest.
The 1000-year reign of Jesus on earth is described briefly in Isaiah 11:6-9 thus:
The wolf will dwell with the lamb. The leopard will lie down with the kid goat, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little boy will lead them. And the cow and the bear will graze and their young will lie together. And the lion will eat straw like the ox. And the nursing child will play by the hole of a cobra.
Adam was a vegetarian! God allowed him to eat only plants, leaves and fruits. But after the flood, God told Noah, that he could eat meat as well. But in the millennium, all the animals will become vegetarians again. Nature will revert to garden-of-Eden conditions. The serpent will not be poisonous. There will be no more thistles or thorns on the earth. No animal will any longer be fierce. Why? Because Jesus has finally been given His rightful place on earth.
What a pity that even animals suffer, because of man's rebellion against God!! All creation is groaning, waiting for the revelation of the "sons of God" (Romans 8:25). The animal-kingdom is waiting for the sons of God to take over this world (which has been ruled for 6000 years by the sons of the devil).
Verse 4: I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of the testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshipped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark upon their forehead and upon their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
The ones who came to resurrection-life were, "those who had been beheaded because of the TESTIMONY OF JESUS". They were killed, not because they did social work for the poor, but because they held forth the testimony of Jesus. What is the "testimony of Jesus"? Jesus said to Pilate, "My kingdom is not of this world. Therefore, my servants will not fight". That is the testimony of Jesus - a testimony of purity, goodness and other-worldliness. He lived for the things of heaven and eternity. These disciples had not worshipped the Antichrist, and had not got his marks either on their palms or on their foreheads, and so they reign with Christ for 1000 years.
Do you imagine that every Christian will reign with Christ? The Word of God says very clearly, that only "if we suffer with Him now, we shall reign with Him then" (2 Timothy 2:12; Romans 8:17). Those who are faithful in their hidden life today will be publicly rewarded and will reign with Him then.
In the light of such verses, we would have to call God a liar if we were to imagine that every so-called "believer" is going to reign with Christ. God's Word is clear that only the OVERCOMERS will reign with Christ. Jesus said in Revelation 3:21:
He who overcomes, will sit with Me on My throne".
Verses 5, 6: The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these, the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years.
In John 5:29, Jesus said,
The dead will come forth when they hear the voice of the Son of Man, those who did the good to a resurrection of life and those who committed evil to the resurrection of judgment.
The second death has no power over those who are raised in the first resurrection. We note a similar phrase in Revelation 2:11, where it says,
He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death".
So we see that it is only those who have overcome who are going to be raised in the first resurrection - those who have listened to the voice of the Holy Spirit in their earthly lives and overcome the world and sin.
Jesus spoke of,
those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and the resurrection from the dead (Luke 20:35).
This statement of Jesus also teaches us that the first resurrection is not for everyone. Some will be considered worthy enough to ATTAIN it, but not others. Everyone will be raised from the dead one day. But only those who are worthy will be raised in the first resurrection.
In Hebrews 11:35, we read of Old Testament saints, who did not deny their faith, when they were tortured. They had refused to receive the mark of the beast on their forehead or on their hands. They did not accept release at the price of compromise. Why? So that they might take part in the first resurrection - the "better resurrection". This also teaches us clearly that there is a better resurrection, and there is another resurrection that is not so good. It was because these Old Testament saints wanted to attain to that better resurrection, that they refused to deny their faith.
In Daniel 12:2, we read,
Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, some to everlasting life, and some to disgrace and everlasting contempt.
In Luke 14:14, Jesus said that if we help and bless and give to those who are in need who are unable to repay us here in this life, we will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous. God is going to repay the overcomers for all that they have sacrificed for Him, for His kingdom and for others.
In Philippians 3:7-11, Paul says,
Whatever things were gain to me I consider as loss for the sake of Christ. I count all things to be loss for the surpassing value of knowing Christ. I count them all as rubbish".
Everything on earth was rubbish compared to the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. And why did Paul count all as rubbish? For one reason: "In order that I may attain to the resurrection from among the dead."
What Paul was saying was,
I want to be an overcomer. I want to know the fellowship of His sufferings. Otherwise I will not reign with Him. I want to know the power of His resurrection in my life now so that one day I can attain to that selective resurrection from among the dead that is going to take place.
When the Lord comes, and the dead are raised up, they will reign with Christ in resurrected bodies. When we are raised from the dead, we are going to have bodies exactly like the body Jesus had. Philippians 3:21 says that He will change our vile, lowly body into the likeness of His own glorious body. And you know the powers that His body had. His body could pass through walls. He could transport Himself from one place to another in a brief moment of time. We too will have bodies like that. It will be a visible body of flesh and bones (without blood), just like the one that Jesus had (Luke 24:39).
We will be able to recognise the saints of God whom we have never met. Peter, James and John did not need to be introduced to Moses and Elijah on the Mount of transfiguration. How did they recognise them? They had not seen any paintings of Moses and Elijah anywhere. It was part of the spontaneous recognition of people that takes place in God's kingdom.
2 Corinthians 5:10 tells us that we must ALL appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that we can be rewarded for the deeds we have done in our body, according to what we have done, whether good or bad.
Salvation is not by works, but by grace. But rewards will be according to our works.
The Lord Jesus will give out rewards to His disciples at His judgment seat. Those rewards will be according to the degree in which we have been faithful to Him and humbled ourselves here. The highest reward will be a closer intimacy and fellowship with God and Christ throughout eternity. We will discover then that this is indeed the greatest honour and privilege that God can give anyone.
The earth will have peace for 1000 years because Satan is bound and because Jesus Christ reigns over the earth from Jerusalem.
During the millennium, millions of babies will be born on earth, just as they are born today. Isaiah 65:20 says,
No longer will there be an infant who lives but a few days or an old man who does not live out his days; for the youth will die at the age of one hundred, and the one who does not reach the age of one hundred shall be thought accursed".
Nowadays there are millions of infants who die in infancy. But it won't be so in the millennium. People will live for hundreds of years because diseases are removed and the curse is partially removed. The curse will not have been removed totally - because death will still be there. Young people's meetings in those days will be for 90-year-olds and 100-year-olds!! It will be like it was in the days from Adam to Noah when people lived up to over 900 years of age (Zechariah 8:4, 5). But there will still be unconverted sinners on the earth at that time (Isaiah 65:20 - KJV).
Verses 7, 8: And when the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war; the number of them is like the sand of the seashore.
At the end of the millennium, Satan will be released from his prison and allowed to visit the earth again.
Why does God permit that? To show everyone the corrupt nature of man.
The 1000-year reign of Christ, will be a time of peace when everyone will see the goodness and humility not only of King Jesus, but also of the saints who rule the earth with Him (unlike the corrupt rulers of today). Even the animals will enjoy that time immensely. But Jesus will still have to rule with a rod of iron, because there will still be sinners who have to be suppressed. Sinful people will continue unchanged, without having given up the rebellion in their hearts. But they will be afraid to disobey.
Having seen all this and compared it with the 6000-year reign of Satan, one would think that the whole world would gladly chose Jesus as King. But, no. They don't. This is the unbelievable reality, that when Satan is released for a short time, and goes out across the earth, he is still able to gather millions to follow him in rebellion against the Lord.
This is unbelievable that people will still want to follow Satan. But there God will show everyone the corruption in man's heart.
It says here that Satan will go out and deceive people - not frighten them. Once again he will tell people,
God's commandments are burdensome. For a thousand years, you were not able to satisfy your lusts. You could not have any fun because you had to obey God. Now come to me and enjoy yourself.
These are the words that he has told man for 6000 years and that many men have believed. The amazing thing is that even after the millennium, there will be millions of people who will believe him again and be led astray.
Thus God will show this universe the corruption of the race of Adam, that even after they have seen the reign of Christ for a thousand years they still choose Satan in order to live after their lusts.
Gog and Magog are mentioned here again. But this is not the battle of Armageddon. That was before the millennium. But now the descendants of Gog and Magog are going to gather together to fight against the Lord a second time!! Truly the stupidity of man is unbelievable. He never seems to learn the most elementary lessons. As the Bible says, the heart of man is deceitful and no good thing dwells in his flesh (Jeremiah 17:5; Romans 7:18). And here is the clearest possible proof of that at the end of time.
Verse 9: And they came upon the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and fire came down from heaven and devoured them.
Those foolish men try to attack the saints, even though they have seen that the resurrection bodies of the saints can never be harmed or killed. That is how Satan makes fools of men. So they surround the camp of the saints - Jerusalem, where Jesus has His throne. But fire comes down and they are destroyed immediately. This battle will be even shorter than the battle of Armageddon. That may have taken a day. This will take only a moment.
Verse 10: And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
Notice the number of times the devil is called a deceiver in Revelation. That is to warn us. He is finally sent to his eternal home - the lake of fire.
The first occupants of the lake of fire, we already saw, were the Antichrist and the false prophet. The third occupant is Satan. So the entire Satanic trinity will occupy the lake of fire first of all.
The beast and the false prophet are still there after a thousand years. They are not consumed, for the fire is never quenched and the worms never die there (Mark 9:44, 46). Like Babylon, their smoke rises up forever and ever (Revelation 19:3).
Many people today feel that men do not follow the Lord Jesus, because they have not seen the goodness of the Lord. But after the millennium, everyone will see that that is not the reason. The real reason is that man does not want to give up his own will.
Verse 11: And I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them.
The first throne - Christ's judgment-seat - was set up at the beginning of the millennium, when the saints were rewarded. Now we see the second throne - the great white throne- set up at the end of the millennium. It says here that no place was found for the earth and the heaven. When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, no place was found for Him to be born. But now when He sits on the throne, no place is found for the earth that rejected Him.
Verse 12: And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds.
Even after these unbelievers are raised from their graves, notice that they are still referred to as "the dead". They are still not really alive, for they are spiritually dead. They are physically alive because they have been raised from the graves, but they are spiritually dead.
"The dead" stand before the throne and the books are opened. The marginal rendering reads, "the scrolls were opened". In 96 A.D., there were no bound books, as we have today. They only had scrolls - long parchments that were rolled up on a spindle. One had to roll up one end to go to the next page. The nearest thing we have today to a scroll is the magnetic tape such as are used in tape-recorders and video-recorders. So we could paraphrase this verse as: "The video-tapes were brought out and replayed". What tapes? The recordings of the entire lives of every man that lived on earth since Adam, who was not raised at the first resurrection. These recordings are actually stored accurately in each person's memory - every deed he did, every word he spoke, and every thought, attitude and motive that he ever had, during his entire life.
And they are judged according to the recordings on their own tapes. Salvation is by grace. But rewards and punishment are according to one's works. There will be different degrees of punishment for different people in the lake of fire. God would be unrighteous if He punished all men alike. Everyone will be judged according to his works. The Lord will rewind the tape of each person's life as he comes forward, and play it back on a screen for all to see. The video tape of a man's own memory cannot lie. It will faithfully playback everything. He will not be able to argue against the recording for it is his own memory that is playing it back. And the whole world will see the record and agree with God that each man deserves the punishment that he is going to be given for all eternity. This judgment will prove to everyone the righteousness of God in punishing people. There is a saying that "justice must not only be done but also be seen to be done". It will be seen by one and all in that day that justice was done perfectly by God.
In that day, the word that Jesus spoke will be fulfilled,
Every careless word than men shall speak, they shall render account for it in the day of judgment" (Matthew 12:36).
You may think that the idle words you have spoken have all been forgotten? But they haven't. They have been recorded faithfully on the video tape of your own memory. The words you spoke in anger and in bitterness, the words of backbiting and slander etc., have all been faithfully recorded on the tape.
Romans 2:16 says that God will judge the secrets of men. 1 Corinthians 4:5 states that God will bring the hidden things and motives to light. Babylonian "Christians" who made money in the name of Christ to build their own financial empire, will be exposed in that day. No one will escape. The dead will be judged according to their deeds.
Verse 13: And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds.
The sea giving up its dead could possibly refer to some evil spirits who have been imprisoned. Death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them - this refers to all unbelievers. The sea seems to contain some others.
2 Peter 2:4 says that God committed certain angels who sinned to pits of darkness and reserved them for judgment. The context there is the time of Noah (verse 5), when some angels sinned, by lusting after women and possessing men in order to commit sexual sin with those women. Those angels are not allowed to move around freely today like other evil spirits are. They have been reserved for judgment. Their judgment could also be at this time. This could possibly be what is meant by "the sea giving up its dead".
The sea was not part of God's original creation. Genesis 1:1 says that God created only the heaven and the earth originally. The sea (waters) came as a result of Lucifer's sin - between verses 1 and 2 of Genesis 1.
Verse 14: And death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.
Jesus spoke very clearly about what happens after death in the story of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31). This is not a parable but a true story. From the fires of Hell, the rich man saw Abraham and Lazarus in Paradise, and cried out for water to cool his tongue. Actually he had no tongue, for his body had been buried on earth and it was only his soul that was in Hell. But having had a tongue all his life, he imagines that he still has one now!! People who die are conscious of their surroundings immediately. Those in Paradise and Hell could see each other and also speak to one another. But between these two places was a great gulf that could not be crossed.
Hades (the word used for the place of departed spirits, in the Greek language) or Sheol (the word used in the Hebrew language), had two sections. One was Hell, where the rich man went. The other was Paradise or Abraham's bosom, where Lazarus went.
When Jesus died on the cross, He told the repentant thief, "Today you shall be with me in Paradise" (Luke 23:43). We read in Acts 2:27, that Jesus went down to Hades. Putting these Scriptures together, we see that Jesus and the thief went to the Paradise-section of Hades. In Matthew 12:40, Jesus said,
As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth".
Jesus' body was in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea on the surface of the earth. But He Himself was in the heart of the earth, as He had said! So that teaches us that Hades, the place of departed spirits, was in the heart of the earth at the time when Jesus died. Jesus, Lazarus and the repentant thief all went to the Paradise section where Abraham was.
But when Jesus ascended to heaven after His resurrection, we read in Ephesians 4:8 that He took the captives captive and ascended with them. That means that He took all the people in the Paradise section of Hades and took them up to the third heaven, the presence of God. Today Paradise is no longer in the heart of the earth. It is in the third heaven in the presence of God Almighty. We know this from 2 Corinthians 12:4, where Paul says, "I was caught up to Paradise, to the third heaven".
But Hell is still in the heart of the earth. Hell will finally be cast into the lake of fire.
Verse 15: And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
This is the lake of fire that Jesus spoke of in Matthew 5:29, when He said,
It is better for you to pull out your eyes if your eye is causing you to lust after women, rather than have both eyes and go to the lake of fire", and It is better for you to cut off your right hand if your right hand is causing you to sin than have both hands and go to the lake of fire, where the worm never dies and the fire is never quenched".
In the same spirit, it would also be true to say, "It is better for you to cut out your tongue or any other part of your body that makes you sin and that will send you to the lake of fire."
Jesus spoke about Hell and the lake of fire more than any other preacher. This was because He knew more than anyone else about the awful reality of these places, and of the danger of damnation for those who did not turn from their sins.
At last the final judgment is over, after 7000 years of man's history - 2000 years from Adam to Abraham, 2000 years from Abraham to Christ, 2000 years between the first and second coming of Christ, and 1000 years of the millennium.
What happens after man has laboured for 6000 years (6 days) and rested for 1000 years (1 day)? Something new!
We read about that in the next two chapters of Revelation.
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Zac Poonen ( - Present)
God called brother Zac Poonen to a new work early on in his Christian experience. The movement is now called Christian Fellowship Churches where the New Covenant of New Testament Christianity is clearly preached.Brother Zac Poonen has written 25 books most of them being on the deeper Christian life. Many of these have been translated into a number of languages and have been circulated widely around the world. He clearly and passionately shares the narrow way of Christian discipleship that is neglected by so many modern preachers.
Recommends these books by Zac Poonen:
Through The Bible by Zac Poonen
The Final Triumph-A verse by verse study of the book of Revelation by Zac Poonen
Beauty for Ashes by Zac Poonen
Zac Poonen is a former Indian Naval Officer who has been in full time ministry in India for nearly 50 years as a Bible teacher and preacher. He holds responsibility for a number of churches in India and abroad. He currently pastors the Christian Fellowship Church in Bangalore, Karnataka.
He has written more than 25 books and numerous articles in English - which have been translated into many Indian and foreign languages. His messages are available on audio and video format.
Like the other elders in his church, Zac Poonen also supports himself and his family through what he describes as "tent-making" and does not receive any salary for his services. He does not receive any royalties for any of his books, CDs or DVDs, that are published by Christian Fellowship Centre, Bangalore.