The Fifth “Last Thing”: The Release of Satan and Man’s Final Rebellion (Rev. 20:7-10)

By David J. MacLeod

David J. MacLeod is a member of the faculty of Emmaus Bible College, Dubuque, Iowa, and is associate editor of The Emmaus Journal.

This is article six in an eight-part series, “Expositional Studies of the Seven ‘Last Things’ in the Book of Revelation.”

One of the profoundest facts in the entire realm of history is the universal sense of guilt.[1] Ancient pagan religions, with all their differences, were united in their recognition that people had offended their gods, whose anger needed to be appeased. Teachers in every branch of the Christian church agree on the problem of the fact of sin and its accompanying guilt before God. John Henry Newman wrote, “The human race is implicated in some terrible aboriginal calamity. It is out of joint with the purposes of its Creator.”[2]

The fact of guilt is an ongoing theme in the world’s great literature. Lady Macbeth, overcome with remorse over her part in the murders committed by her husband, vociferously cried out her guilt as she viewed the imagined blood stains on her hand. And Scripture indicts the entire human race for its sin. “Both Jews and Greeks are all under sin … that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may become accountable to God … for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:9, 19, 23).

Yet many people are in a state of denial, refusing to admit their sin. “Nothing,” says Anglican bishop D. R. Davies, “is so sinister in our world today as the decline in the sense of sin, the dissipating of the sense of guilt.”[3]

Several forces—including liberal Protestant theology, aggressive secularism, ethereal humanism, revived paganism, and psychological Freudianism—contribute to this trend. Humankind, they insist, is basically good. Suppressed guilt feelings are the source of neuroses; therefore guilt feelings must be transcended. As a result the language of sin—the biblical assertions that unbelief, rebellion against God, and transgression of His commands are blameworthy—has been replaced by the language of sociology and therapy. “There was a time when we were afraid of being caught doing something sinful in front of our ministers,” observes a character in one of Peter De Vries’s short stories. “Now we are afraid of being caught doing something immature in front of our therapists.”[4]

Shortly before his death Roman Catholic archbishop Fulton J. Sheen was interviewed by Christianity Today. In the interview he asserted, “The modern world does not believe in sin…. The ministers and priests [have] stopped talking about sin. The lawyers picked it up and it became a ‘crime.’ The psychiatrists reached for it and it became a ‘complex.’ ” And then he made this rather humorous observation: “It used to be that we Catholics were the only ones in the world who believed in the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary. Today every American believes he is immaculately conceived. [If he does something wrong] he is not a sinner; he is [just] sick.”[5]

Not all counseling or therapy is wrong—it is often helpful to talk over one’s problems with a responsible, mature Christian elder, pastor, or counselor, and on some occasions a Christian needs medical help from a physician with psychiatric training. However, society as a whole has rejected the biblical explanation of evil. It has rejected the scriptural terminology of sin for a new moral vocabulary that is largely psychological. Therapy is deadly when it encourages people to think of themselves as helpless victims instead of full-scale sinners and responsible moral beings.

Some time ago the Wall Street Journal placed an advertisement in the New York Times. It was a reprint of one of their editorials entitled, “When was the last time you had a good conversation about sin?” The editorial recounted the roll call of sinful behavior seen daily on television news and then commented, “Sin isn’t something that many people, including most churches, have spent much time talking about or worrying about through [recent] years…. But we will say this for sin; it at least offered a frame of reference for personal behavior. When the frame was dismantled, guilt wasn’t the only thing that fell away; we also lost the guidewire of personal responsibility…. Everyone was left on his or her own. It now appears that many wrecked people could have used a road map.”[6]

Human history is the tragic tale of offenses against God. The Bible states that the proper way to deal with sin is to confess it, that is, to bring it out in the open before God. The wrong approach is to suppress the sense of sin.[7]

Revelation 20:7–10 points up the reality of sin in humanity. It contains a prophecy of the very last sins people will commit, and it shows the inevitable outcome of those sins. The point of these verses is that God will use Satan in the closing events of world history to demonstrate once and for all the depravity and moral corruption of the human race.

The Release of Satan from the Abyss (20:7)

The Time of His Release

Verses 7–10 describe events that will take place “when the thousand years are completed,” that is, at the end of the millennium.[8] This is the one-thousand-year period when Jesus Christ will reign on the earth.[9]

A description of the millennium. The millennial age will be a golden age for human beings.[10] It will begin with the return of Jesus Christ to defeat His enemies. While He is reigning on the earth (5:10), Satan will be imprisoned in the abyss and have no influence on human life (20:1–3). The redeemed of all ages will be associated with the Lord Jesus in His reign. In their glorified, resurrected bodies they will be associates of the King of kings (vv. 4–6). The millennium will be a time when God’s moral standards will be imposed on all society (Isa. 32:5; 40:4; 42:3; Mal. 4:4). The Messiah will rule (Rev. 19:15), and everyone will be held responsible for his or her actions (Ezek. 18:3–29). There will be no warfare; it will be an era of worldwide peace (Ps. 46:9; Mic. 4:3). Environmental crimes will be righted, and beauty will reign in nature (Isa. 30:23–25; 35:1–10). Physical disease and deformity will disappear (33:24; 35:5–6), and everything worthwhile in human life will be fostered (42:3). All international power will be vested in Jesus Christ, who will judge between the nations (2:2, 4). As King of the Jews, He will reign from Jerusalem, the city of David (2 Sam. 5:7, 9; Psa. 110:2; Isa. 2:2–4; 60:14, 18; Zech. 8:3).

The inhabitants of the millennium. Two kinds of people will be living on the earth at that time. There will be the resurrected, glorified immortal people of God. They will walk the earth in sinless perfection, with bodies like that of the glorified Christ (Phil. 3:21; 1 John 3:2). However, some people will enter the millennium without resurrection bodies. These will be born-again believers converted to Christ during the time of the Tribulation.[11] Human life for them will continue with the natural processes of marriage (Jer. 33:11), procreation, birth (Zech. 8:5), and growth (Isa. 60:22). Disease and deformity will be divinely controlled, and the length of human life will be greatly prolonged (65:20–22). Children born during this time will be sinners just as today, with sinful natures and sinful tendencies; they will need to turn to Christ for salvation or be lost in their sins. No doubt part of the work of those who will reign with Christ will be to evangelize the nations.[12] This helps explain why Satan will be released at the end of the millennium.

The Purpose Of His Release

John wrote that after the one thousand years Satan “must be released for a short time” (Rev. 20:3). The Greek particle δεῖ (“must”), which means “it is necessary,” was often used with the sense of “divine destiny or unavoidable fate.”[13] A. T. Robertson speaks of Satan’s release as a “sad necessity.”[14] Two reasons for it are implied in the text.[15] The first reason is to demonstrate the incorrigibility of Satan. As soon as he is released, he will demonstrate that neither his plans nor his nature have changed.

Some people have suggested that Satan will eventually repent and be restored.[16] The Italian writer Papini expressed it this way:

The Christian … should feel for [Satan] as the most supremely unfortunate of created beings, the leader and symbol of all enmity and division, yet the archangel who once was nearest to God. Perhaps only our love can help him to save himself, help him become again what he once was, the most perfect of heavenly spirits…. Is it not possible that Christ redeemed men so that, following this precept to love their enemies, they may one day be worthy of conceiving the redemption of the most ominous and stubborn enemy of all? … We must approach Satan in a spirit of mercy and justice, not in order to become his admirers or imitators but with the hope of freeing him from himself and ourselves thereby from him. Perhaps he awaits only a sign of our mercy to find once again in himself the strength to renounce his hatred, that is, to free the whole world from the dominion of evil.[17]

There is not the slightest hint in Scripture to support such remarks. Nowhere are believers told to love the devil. Nor does the Bible suggest that Christians can redeem Satan or anyone else. Nor is it their duty to show him mercy. The Bible suggests that Satan is an evil rebel—and the Christian’s deadly enemy.

A long prison term sometimes reforms the conduct of criminals. Though their hearts remain unchanged, once released they refrain from the behavior that got them imprisoned. Satan’s one-thousand-year prison sentence will not reform him; he will still be evil. When released he will immediately seek to seduce others.[18]

The second reason for Satan’s release is to demonstrate the depravity of humanity. Just as Satan was allowed to enter the first paradise (Gen. 3), so he will be allowed to enter the last paradise of this present world. Just as he was allowed to enter Eden, so in the restoration of paradise—the millennial earth—he will be permitted to do it again.[19] This final chapter in the world’s history will again demonstrate that people perpetually embrace evil unless sustained by sovereign grace.

In these events are seen some elements of a premillennial philosophy of history.[20] One of the reasons for the continuation of history is that God is demonstrating man’s utter ruin in sin and his responsibility for the evil state of the world.[21] The apostle Paul wrote that the day will come when “every mouth” will be stopped (Rom. 3:19). Yet up until this very moment people’s mouths have not been stopped because they either suppress their sense of sin or else excuse themselves. In Eden the man blamed the woman, and the woman blamed the serpent (Gen. 3:12–13). Later great violence broke out in the earth. So God sent the Flood and then instituted human government and capital punishment. “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed” (9:6).

But humankind did not improve. Perhaps their excuse would be, if asked, “Well, we need to be inspired with promises and hope.” And so the Lord gave great promises to Abraham (Gen. 12, 15, 17). Still people did not improve. Perhaps their excuse then, had they been asked, was, “Yes, we have government, but we don’t know how to apply it. We don’t know what You want us to do. We have promises, but we need guidelines.” And so God gave the Law of Moses with the Ten Commandments. Again people failed the test. If quizzed, they probably would have said, “Well, the Law is too abstract. If only we could see a flesh and blood example of what You want.” So God sent the Lord Jesus Christ into the world. But when He exposed their terrible moral failure, they killed Him. Possibly people would then have said, “Well, we need power to follow your Word.” And so the Lord gave the Holy Spirit to His followers. Yet the world is in terrible shape, and a church marked by power in many ways is also marked by failure and unbelief in others.

People still have excuses. The evil behavior of both criminals and noncriminals is blamed on poverty, drugs, bad chromosomes, insecurity, narcissism, self-pity, sexual repression, anxiety, morbidity, insensitivity, paranoia, and so forth.

A few years ago a group of teenage boys in New York’s Central Park attacked a young woman jogger. She was raped, stabbed, beaten, and left for dead. When caught, the young men claimed they were out for a night of “wilding.” They lived on the edge of Harlem, yet their backgrounds were normal. Four of the youths lived in a building with a doorman. One was enrolled in a parochial school. Another had just received a grade of A on a book report. Yet the inevitable excuses of our therapeutic society were quickly given. The boys were “damaged … in pain inside.” They were “letting out their anger.” One psychologist said, “Society has not been nice to these kids.” So the criminals are the true victims. They are not depraved—they are just deprived.[22]

Charles Colson visited a model correctional institution in Europe. The psychiatrist explained that 71 percent of the inmates had been classified as mentally abnormal because they had committed particularly heinous crimes. Since people are inherently good, said the doctor, anyone who does evil must be mentally ill. So inmates with this “illness” were sent to her institution to be cured. A few days after Colson’s visit, a convicted rapist was given permission for a short furlough under the escort of a twenty-six-year-old female guard. Part of his therapy was to attend a movie with her, a step on his road to “normalcy.” Not far from the prison gates, the inmate battered and murdered the young woman.

Colson concluded, “Violent tendencies are not an illness. Criminal behaviors are not symptoms of a disease. We cannot explain away awful acts through sociological factors or odd chromosomes or poverty or germs or drugs. While these can surely be factors in criminal behavior, the root cause of crime has not changed since Cain. It is sin…. The Bible teaches that men and women’s natures are inherently depraved. Without restraints, sin will emerge and wreck its havoc on whatever crosses its path.”[23]

More recently some people are blaming evil behavior on Satan, a uniquely modern twist. They say that people ensnared in cults and abusive situations are totally innocent; they are not responsible. And so at last, during the millennial kingdom, God will place the human race in a world without Satan. It will be a world in which Jesus Christ will reside on the earth in His physical, visible, glorious body. It will be a perfect environment, with disease curtailed. But the problem of humanity will not be the environment, or chromosomes, or even the devil.

The Gathering of the Nations against the Saints (20:8)

The Seduction Of The Nations

John was apparently not told who will release Satan. Perhaps it will be the same angel who will imprison him when the millennial age begins (20:1–2). As soon as he is released, he will seek “to deceive the nations,” and he will be successful, for in number they will be “like the sand of the seashore” (v. 8). Many of those who will be born to Christian parents will not acknowledge Christ as their Savior, but will remain in unbelief, and many will chafe under His rule. So when Satan seeks to seduce them into rebellion, they will readily follow him.

The words of Psalm 66:3 prophetically anticipate the millennial reign of Christ.[24] The psalmist wrote, “Because of the greatness of Thy power Thine enemies will give feigned obedience to Thee.” Jesus will rule with a rod of iron, and many will yield external obedience to the King, but their hearts will be filled with rebellion.[25] They will despise the Christ whom they will see with their own eyes. Unconverted people will crave the pleasures and pastimes of a sinful world.

The Description Of The Nations

Satan’s seductive propaganda will appeal to unbelievers in nations all over the earth. John specifically mentioned “Gog and Magog.” In Ezekiel 38:6 Gog is from the land of Magog in “the remotest parts of the north.”

The identity of Gog and Magog in Ezekiel’s day is debated. Many feel they were the Scythians or the Goths, fierce and wild tribes to the north who were viewed with horror by the civilized world.[26] In later Jewish writings “Gog and Magog” became an expression for all the rebellious nations of Psalm 2.[27] In Ezekiel’s prophecy of the end times Gog will come against Israel as they settle in the land just before the beginning of the millennium.[28] In John’s Revelation Gog and Magog will come against Israel at the end of the millennium.[29]

How can Gog and Magog refer to a battle in Revelation 19 before the millennium and this battle at the end of the millennium? The most likely explanation is that Antichrist is Gog and will be defeated at the Second Coming. During the millennium his defeat will become a legend among the nations, something like Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo. Then at the end of the millennial kingdom the Gog and Magog “legend” is applied to a new historical situation (20:8), with Satan leading the new “Gog and Magog.”[30] Satan will meet his “Waterloo”—his “Gog and Magog.” Just as Antichrist fulfilled the Gog and Magog prophecy at the beginning of the millennium, so the rebellious millennial nations will fulfill it as well, at the end of the one thousand years.

The Mobilization Of The Nations

It is amazing to think that human beings who have lived on earth with the King of kings and Lord of lords will actually mobilize for war against Him. But again, this shows the depravity of the human heart. Is it not incredible that after ten supernatural plagues, which he confessed were sent by God, Pharaoh would array his armies against the people of Israel visibly defended by the pillar of cloud (Exod. 14)? Is it not incredible that after the earth opened up and swallowed Dathan and Abiram (Num. 16; cf. Ps. 106:17) and the fire of God had struck dead 250 of their fellow rebels that only one day later the people grumbled against Moses and Aaron and said, “You are the ones who have caused the death of the Lord’s people” (Num. 16:41)?

Historian Arnold J. Toynbee says that history records twenty-one civilizations. These are twenty-one attempts to make a success of systematic living, independently of God. Remarkably every one of them is a failure.[31] Even Western civilization is crumbling today. As modern civilization suppresses the doctrine of original sin and loses its understanding of right and wrong, it will falter.[32] It is significant that even the civilization of the millennial kingdom will end in failure, and in rebellion against God.

The Surrounding of the City by the Enemy (20:9)

The Focus Of Their Attack

The armies of Satan will come up “on the broad plain of the earth.” This can be rendered “on the breadth of the land” (cf. Isa. 8:8; Hab. 1:6), that is, on Israel.[33] The focus of Satan’s attention is “the camp of the saints” and “the beloved city,” that is, Jerusalem.[34] It is rightly called “beloved” because for a thousand years it will have been the seat of Christ’s kingdom and the spiritual center of the earth (Isa. 60:14, 18; 62:3, 7; Jer. 31:6).

The term “camp” (παρεμβολή) denotes a military camp of an army on the march (Exod. 16:13, LXX) or engaged in battle (Heb. 11:34). The verse distinguishes the camp from the city. The saints are gathered in the camp in order to defend the city from attackers.[35] This would suggest that the rebellion will come as no surprise to the King of kings.

What kind of temptation will Satan use to seduce the nations to come in battle against the Son of God? One of the older and more thoughtful commentators suggests that it is one of the oldest temptations of all, namely, anti-Semitism, the hatred of Gentiles against the Jews.[36] The Bible is clear that Israel will enjoy a special place during the millennium (Isa. 60:10–12; 61:5–6). Perhaps Satan will goad people, saying, “Why should the Jews have first place? Assert your racial superiority. Go up and destroy Jerusalem and build a metropolis of your own.”

According to Zechariah 14:16–19 the nations will be required to make an annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles each fall. Perhaps the nations will gather for war at that time. They might think that such a large gathering would arouse little suspicion at a time when large numbers of visitors are expected in the city anyway.

The Nature Of Their Destruction

When Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden, he, in essense, declared a “cosmic civil war” in the universe. God did not create man to be free. He created him to be dependent on Himself. Almighty God will not surrender His supremacy in this universe to Satan or to rebellious nations. His holiness demands that He say an eternal no to the rebellion of His creatures.[37] Rather than a great prolonged battle, the wicked millions will be destroyed immediately. The power of God is so great that there will not be even the appearance of a battle.[38]

During the Crimean War (1853–1856) a famous battle took place between the English cavalry and the Russian cannoneers. The British officers made a terrible miscalculation and sent a brigade of six hundred cavalrymen up a valley right into the Russian guns. It was a terrible blunder—the Russians could not believe their eyes as the horsemen rode into the trap—and the English soldiers were decimated. Alfred Lord Tennyson immortalized this event for the English public with his poem “The Charge of the Light Brigade.”

“Forward the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns!” he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred. 

Cannon to the right of them,
Cannon to the left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley’d and thunder’d; 

Storm’d at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.[39]

Similarly the captain of the army, Satan himself, will make a terrible blunder at the end as he leads his forces—the “Dark Brigade”—into the jaws of death and into the mouth of hell.

The Casting of the Devil into the Lake of Fire (20:10)

The Destiny Of The Devil

Jesus told His disciples, “I go to prepare a place for you” (John 14:2), that is, the heavenly city in which God’s people will live throughout eternity. Matthew 25:41 states that the lake of fire was “prepared for the devil and his angels.” The same word (ἑτοιμάζω, “to prepare”) is used of both places. The devil will be thrown into his eternal home, where he will join the beast and the false prophet, who were put there a thousand years before.

Revelation 20:10 touches on a number of important theological matters. For one thing, it demonstrates that the devil is not God, nor is he a rival to God. In the end he will be seen as only a creature. “The mystery of the devil, like the mystery of evil itself, lies hidden in the depths of the mystery of God’s purpose for His creation.”[40] The verse suggests that it is not the function of the devil to originate sin in humans but to reveal it and develop its latent possibilities.[41] Other theological matters touched on are the nature of hell and the denial of annihilation.

The Nature Of His Punishment

This is the fourth “chapter” in the downfall of Satan. The first chapter was the Cross when Christ took from him the fear of death with which he terrorized humankind. The second chapter is when he will be expelled from heaven in the middle of the Tribulation (Rev. 12). The third chapter is when he will be cast into the abyss at the beginning of the millennium (20:2). Now, finally, he will be thrown into the lake of fire (v. 10). There will be no release from hell. “There is no intermission and no end.”[42]

The lake of fire is a terrible picture. It is, of course, picturesque language, but it describes a real fact in the spiritual world.[43] Literal fire would quickly burn up an ordinary human body. Of course, those in hell do not have ordinary human bodies. They will be resurrected bodily, and just as the redeemed will have bodies uniquely suited for glory, these will have bodies uniquely suited for judgment. The writer was born in Sydney, a small steel mill city, in Nova Scotia in eastern Canada. He remembers the story of a man who fell into molten steel. His body was annihilated immediately. Yet, in hell people are never burned up. They are there “forever and ever.” It is a dreadful place of torment, and the Bible uses the most dreadful picture in the human language to describe it.[44]

Verse 10 shows the fallacy of the doctrine of annihilation, the view that the lost will not suffer eternally but will be destroyed. The beast and the false prophet will have been cast into the lake of fire one thousand years before, and at the end of the millennium they will still be there. They will not have been annihilated.[45]

Conclusion

This passage demonstrates that the believer’s three great enemies in spiritual warfare—the world, the flesh, and the devil—will exist up to the very end of this present world. The world system, that is, the pagan mind-set of collective rebellion against the will of God will reemerge in the millennial kingdom in spite of the righteous rule of the Lord Jesus Christ. As for the flesh, the human heart is deceitful and corrupt, and those who face God at the last judgment will have nothing to say. The devil is an evil being who is incorrigible. He will act hatefully and murderously toward the people of God until the end. Believers should be wary of this evil being who seeks their destruction.

There is only one way to escape: Men and women must confess their sins and embrace Christ as their Savior. Only those who believe in Christ as their Savior will have their sins forgiven.

This generation is trying hard to suppress its sense of sin. But “out of sight” does not mean “out of mind.” Thankfully God has given people consciences, and He has sent His messengers to talk to them about their sins and their need of forgiveness. There is no thicket in which they can hide themselves from the storms of self-accusation; there is no shore that cannot be washed by the recurrent tides of the brooding awareness of their sins.[46]

The problem with this world is the human race. People continue to be noted for their disobedience and rebellion against God, and their hateful behavior toward neighbors, fellow employees, family, and friends.

Years ago a correspondent for the London Times wrote a series of articles on a number of the same social problems that face the world now. He ended each article with the question, “What’s wrong with the world?” G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) read a number of the articles and then wrote his famous reply: “Dear Editor: What’s wrong with the world? I am. Faithfully yours, G. K. Chesterton.” He was affirming that at the base of all the world’s problems is the sinfulness of humanity.[47]

In the millennium many people will embrace the faith of their parents, but many will not. This is another reminder that born-again people do not propagate born-again children. Every child born into this world has to make his or her own decision to accept or reject Christ. Parents and grandparents must be encouraged to place the claims of Christ before the children in their care.

Two eternal “homes” have been “prepared” for God’s creatures. For the devil and his angels God has prepared the lake of fire. For His own redeemed people Christ has prepared the heavenly city. The challenge that preachers of the Word must place before those to whom they proclaim God’s Word is, “In which of these homes will you spend eternity?”

Notes

1. D. R. Davies, Down Peacock’s Feathers: Studies in the Contemporary Significance of the General Confession (New York: Macmillan, 1944), 36. In his introduction the present writer has borrowed a number of thoughts from this book.
2. John Henry Newman, Apologia pro Vita Sua, ed. M. Svalgic (London: Oxford University Press, 1967), 217.
3. Davies, Down Peacock’s Feathers (New York: Macmillan, 1944), 36.
4. Peter De Vries, quoted in Thomas G. Long, “God Be Merciful to Me, a Miscalculator,” Theology Today 50 (July 1993): 166.
5. David Kucharsky, “Bottom-Line Theology: An Interview with Fulton J. Sheen,” Christianity Today, June 3, 1977, 10.
6. New York Times, January 8, 1992.
7. Davies, Down Peacock’s Feathers, 44.
8. It should be noted that this paragraph does not begin with καὶ εἶδον (“and I saw”; cf. 19:17, 19; 20:1, 4, 11, 12; 21:1). In other words this passage “is not vision, but pure prophecy” (Robert Govett, The Apocalypse: Expounded by Scripture [London, 1861; reprint, Miami Springs, FL: Conley & Schoettle, 1981), 4:268.
9. Cf. J. A. Seiss, Lectures on the Apocalypse, 9th ed. (New York: Charles C. Cook, 1906), 342.
10. See Alva J. McClain, The Greatness of the Kingdom (Chicago: Moody, 1959), 217–54; and John F. Walvoord, The Revelation of Jesus Christ (Chicago: Moody, 1966), 301–2.
11. Walvoord, The Revelation of Jesus Christ, 302.
12. This is suggested by R. H. Charles, The Revelation of St. John, International Critical Commentary (Edinburgh: Clark, 1920), 2:143, 154, 186. Remarkably, it is denied by Seiss, Lectures on the Apocalypse, 3:346.
13. Walter Bauer, William F. Arndt, and F. Wilbur Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 2d ed., rev. F. Wilbur Gingrich and Frederick W. Danker (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979), 172.
14. A. T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament (Nashville: Broadman, 1933), 6:458.
15. Govett, The Apocalypse: Expounded by Scripture, 4:213–15; Seiss, Lectures on the Apocalypse, 3:351–52; Ford C. Ottman, The Unfolding of the Ages (New York: Baker & Taylor, 1905), 429–30; Walvoord, The Revelation of Jesus Christ, 303; G. R. Beasley-Murray, The Book of Revelation, New Century Bible (London: Oliphants, 1974), 291; and Robert H. Mounce, The Book of Revelation, New International Commentary on the New Testament, rev. ed. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998), 363, 371.
16. This suggestion was first made by Origen (A.D. 185-253) (De Principiis 3.6.5, in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, ed. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson [1885; reprint, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994], 4:346). The suggestion has been embraced by some modern writers. Paternoster cites the aphorism of W. H. G. Holmes (The Alphabet of Holiness [London: Mowbray, 1943], 66), “Mercy could reach Satan, if he could accept it.” Paternoster himself defends this view (Michael Paternoster, Thou Art There Also: God, Death, and Hell [London: SPCK, 1967], 38–55).
17. Giovani Papini, The Devil, trans. Adrienne Foulke (New York: Dutton, 1954), 16–17; cf. 211–21.
18. Govett, The Apocalypse: Expounded by Scripture, 4:268.
19. Beasley-Murray, The Book of Revelation, 291.
20. See McClain, The Greatness of the Kingdom, 527–31.
21. James Mongomery Boice, “Will There Really Be a Golden Age?” Eternity, September 1972, 28, 30; idem, The Last and Future World (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1974), 26–30. See also Donald Grey Barnhouse, Teaching the Word of Truth (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1940), 178–87; and idem, Revelation: An Expository Commentary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1971), 386.
22. Charles Colson, “You Can’t Cure the Wilding Sickness,” Christianity Today, September 8, 1989, 80.
23. Ibid.
24. Arthur G. Clarke, Analytical Studies in the Psalms (Kansas City, KS: Walterick, 1949), 167.
25. S. Lewis Johnson Jr., “The Final Rebellion” (Dallas: Believers’ Chapel, 1989–90), audiotape. The writer is indebted to Johnson for a number of the thoughts expressed in this article.
26. Edwin M. Yamauchi, Foes from the Northern Frontier: Invading Hordes from the Russian Steppes (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1982), 22–27; and Govett, The Apocalypse: Expounded by Scripture, 4:272–76.
27. For documentation in the Talmud, see Henry Barclay Swete, The Apocalypse of St. John (London: Macmillan, 1906), 264–65; Charles, The Revelation of St. John, 2:189; and G. B. Caird, The Revelation of St. John the Divine, Harper’s New Testament Commentaries (New York: Harper and Row, 1966), 256.
28. The chronology of the invasion of Ezekiel 38–39 is understood differently by various scholars. There are at least six views. (1) The invasion will take place before the Tribulation (David L. Cooper, When Gog’s Armies Meet the Almighty [Los Angeles: Biblical Research Society, 1940], 80–81). (2) The invasion will take place in the middle of the Tribulation (J. Dwight Pentecost, Things to Come [Grand Rapids: Dunham, 1958], 350–52; and Leon Wood, A Commentary on Daniel [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1973], 309). (3) The events will take place at the end of the Tribulation (William Kelly, Lectures on the Book of Revelation [London: G. Morrish, 1874], 448; and Charles Lee Feinberg, The Prophecy of Ezekiel [Chicago: Moody, 1969], 218). (4) The events of Ezekiel 38–39 will spread over a period of time, with chapter 38 being fulfilled in the middle of the Tribulation and chapter 39 being fulfilled at its end (Harold W. Hoehner, “The Progression of Events in Ezekiel 38–39, ” in Integrity of Heart, Skillfulness of Hands, ed. Charles H. Dyer and Roy B. Zuck [Grand Rapids: Baker, 1994], 82–92). (5) The invasion will take place at the end of the millennium (H. L. Ellison, Ezekiel, The Man and His Message [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1956], 133–34; A. B. Davidson, The Book of the Prophet Ezekiel, Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, rev. A. W. Streane [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1916], 301; Mounce, The Book of Revelation, 371; J. Paul Tanner, “Rethinking Ezekiel’s Invasion by Gog,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 39 [March 1996]: 29-46; and Meredith G. Kline, “Har Magedon: The End of the Millennium,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 39 [June 1996]: 207-22). (6) Ezekiel’s prophecy will be fulfilled in two events, one recorded in Revelation 19:17–21 and one in Revelation 20:7–10 (Caird, The Revelation of St. John the Divine, 256; and Ralph H. Alexander, “Ezekiel,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1986], 6:937–40).
29. Walvoord notes a number of differences between the invasions in Ezekiel 38 and Revelation 20: (1) In Ezekiel the invaders come from the north, while in Revelation they come from the “four corners of the earth.” (2) In Ezekiel the invasion comes at the beginning of Christ’s reign, while in Revelation it comes at the end. (3) In Ezekiel the invaders are led by Gog, while in Revelation they are led by Satan. (4) The invaders in Ezekiel die on the mountains, and their bodies are burned, whereas in Revelation they surround Jerusalem and are consumed with fire from heaven (The Revelation of Jesus Christ, 303–4; see also T. B. Baines, The Revelation of Jesus Christ, 5th ed. [London: G. Morrish, 1911], 270–71).
30. This duplication of the invasions of Gog and Magog is recognized by a number of commentators. “Anyone whom Gog’s hat fits may wear it” (Caird, The Revelation of St. John the Divine, 256; cf. Charles, The Revelation of St. John, 2:188–89).
31. Arnold J. Toynbee, A Study of History, 12 vols. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1934–1961). See especially volumes 1, 4, and 5.
32. “Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible; but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary” (Reinhold Niebuhr, The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness [New York: Scribner’s, 1960], xiii). See also William H. Willimon, Sighing for Eden: Sin, Evil, and the Christian Faith (Nashville: Abingdon, 1985), 108–9.
33. Charles, The Revelation of St. John, 2:190; and Govett, The Apocalypse: Expounded by Scripture, 4:277. On the other hand Mounce says the phrase refers to a larger staging area for Satan’s armies (Mounce, The Book of Revelation, 373).
34. Most commentators regard the city as the earthly city (e.g., Friedrich Düsterdieck, Critical and Exegetical Handbook to the Revelation of John, Meyer’s Commentary on the New Testament [New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1884; reprint, Winona Lake, IN: Alpha, 1979], 467). Beasley-Murray, however, argues that the city is the heavenly Jerusalem, which will have descended from heaven to the earth during the millennial age (The Book of Revelation, 298).
35. It is a plain evasion of the context for Swete to identify the city as the universal church (The Apocalypse of St. John, 265).
36. Govett, The Apocalypse: Expounded by Scripture, 4:269–70.
37. Davies, Down Peacock’s Feathers, 41–42.
38. Leon Morris, The Revelation of St. John, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1969), 239.
39. Alfred Tennyson, The Complete Poetical Works of Alfred Tennyson (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1881), 354–55.
40. Beasley-Murray, The Book of Revelation, 298.
41. Ibid.
42. Morris, The Revelation of St. John, 240.
43. Ladd, A Commentary on the Revelation of John, 270.
44. “Poena damni (the punishment of the damned) is inextricably linked with poena sensus (punishment of the senses). To speak of torment is to understand immediately, without necessarily having to say so explicitly, that it is a painful experience” (Trevor P. Craigen, “Eternal Punishment in John’s Revelation,” Master’s Seminary Journal 9 [fall 1998]: 198. “What other kind of torment is there besides conscious torment?” Alan W. Gomes asks. “Torment, by its very nature, demands a sentient (i.e., feeling) subject to experience it” (“Evangelicals and the Annihilation of Hell, part 1” Christian Research Journal [spring 1991]: 18).
45. It is common for those who deny eternal punishment to allegorize this text and treat the beast and the false prophet not as individual persons but as symbols of the world in its hostility to God (Swete, The Apocalypse of St. John, 267; John R. W. Stott, “Response,” in Evangelical Essentials, by David L. Edwards and John Stott [Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1988], 318; and Edward William Fudge, The Fire That Consumes, rev. ed. [Carlisle: Paternoster, 1994], 192–93). Three observations are in order: (1) The fact that the beast and the false prophet are “tormented” would argue against the allegorical exegesis of Fudge and Stott. The verb suggests they are actual persons. (2) Stott does not comment on the devil’s pain. Even if he were right that the beast and the false prophet are symbols, the devil is “thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone” and he suffers forever and ever. Since this verse says there will be eternal conscious suffering by one sentient being—the devil—it is difficult to see why the suffering of human beings would be different. (3) Fudge, unlike Stott, seems to depersonalize the devil, but he concludes that “there is no easy solution” to the text’s meaning. It is a difficult verse for Fudge because he is rejecting what the text clearly teaches (Alan W. Gomes, “Evangelicals and the Annihilation of Hell, part 2” Christian Research Journal [summer 1991]: 11-13; and D. A. Carson, The Gagging of God [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996], 527).
46. Davies, Down Peacock’s Feathers, 41.
47. Michael P. Green, ed., Illustrations for Biblical Preaching (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1989), 341–42.