The dragon’s human representatives are destroyed. Babylon has fallen; the realm of the anti-Christ is destroyed. The anti-Christ in person and the false prophet have been cast into the ‘lake of fire and burning sulphur’ and their armies have been totally eliminated. However the leading figure, the ‘dragon’ who was cast out of Heaven, the devil, has been left untouched. It is his turn now, in two phases. He will first be bound and cast into the ‘Abyssos’—the Abyss. After this ‘the first resurrection’ takes place and the ‘resurrected saints’, the ‘resurrected righteous dead’ join the Christ in His Messianic thousand-year government. Then Satan is released from his prison and he discovers that the hearts of the people, who have been ruled over by Christ and the saints, are still susceptible to his seductions. He gathers them together for a second war against Christ. He is then captured and cast into Gehenna, where the ‘beast’ and the ‘false prophet’ already are. Finally, ‘the second resurrection’ takes place, and after that all the dead stand before God’s throne at the last and final judgment. The condemned are cast into Gehenna—the lake of fire—with Satan and the anti-Christ. The righteous enter into their definitive state of glory in the ‘New Heavens’ and the ‘New Earth’. This is how John gives his order of events.
A German theologian said that there are at least a hundred and fifty variations and explanations of these resurrections and the ‘thousand years’ reign’: the Millennium. We shall follow the text of the Book of Revelation step by step and see where it leads. Prophecy is not fortune-telling, and we only ‘know in part and prophesy in part’, according to Paul.1 The Book of Revelation says itself that nothing may be added and nothing may be detracted from the ‘words of the prophecy of this Book’. That means that anyone seeking to explain it must be very careful, otherwise the ‘plagues’ described in this book will be added to him and his share of the ‘tree of life’ and his place in the Holy City, the Heavenly Jerusalem, will be taken away.2 Peter says that prophecy does not allow for personal interpretation, ‘eschatological science-fiction’ or ‘prophetic roadmaps’.3 Nor does explanation mean boxing someone else’s ears with your opinion. Paul says: “If anyone wants to be contentious about this, we have no other practice—nor do the Churches of God.”4
The chapter-division suggests a complete new beginning, a new phase at this moment, but that only takes place later in fact, and these first three verses could just as easily be attached to chapter 19. For now the devil is captured—not even by Jesus, but by an angel. The Lord had cursed and condemned the devil, Satan, the old serpent (‘nachash’) in Paradise (Genesis 3:14-15), and the Lord Jesus conquered the rebellious ‘prince of angels’, Lucifer (‘light bearer’) on the cross at Golgotha, Hebrews 2:14-15. The work of atonement and redemption was completed. With this, the bridgehead in occupied territory was established, for the devil is the ruler of this world (Luke 4:5-7; Ephesians 2:2) The ‘Kingdom on earth given by the Heavens’, given by God was able to expand further in the following centuries all over the world in the hearts of those who were responding to the preaching of the Gospel of the Kingdom by opening their hearts for God and Christ.. Now it will be established openly, worldwide, publicly by Christ’s Coming in Glory. The ‘angel’ is like the prison official who places a person who is under arrest in secure confinement. He puts him in chains, so that he cannot break out, and he secures the prison, awaiting the definitive verdict. That ‘pit of the abyss’ was opened by another angel, the fifth ‘trumpet’ angel, with all the terrible consequences for the earth that that entailed.5 A key, opening and closing, was mentioned then too.
• Pre-millennialism, a-millennialism and post-millennialism are three views related to Christ’s Coming and His thousand-year reign.
• Post-millennialism believes that Christ only returns when worldwide Christianity has brought about the ‘Kingdom of God’ all over the world. In other words, the world is totally Christianized.
• This view sees chapter 19 as the victory of the Christian principles all over the world, and after this ‘golden age’, Christ comes to raise the dead, and then follows the last judgment, with the New Heaven and the New Earth thereafter. More about a-millennialism and pre-millennialism tomorrow and the day after.
• In the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31 there is a ‘chasm’ between the righteous dead and the wicked dead in Hades/Sheol. Jesus knows the situation over there as no one else, so this is not a parable but a look into the reality after death.
• In the Book of Revelation, Abaddon is called “the angel of the abyss”. Abyss (Greek ἄβυσσος), is primarily and classically an adjective, meaning deep, very deep (Job 38:8-11). Some thirty times in the Septuagint it is the equivalent of the Hebrew tēhóm, “deep flood”, and rāchābh, “spacious place”. Hence the meanings: (1) primeval waters; (2) the waters beneath the earth, groundwater, sweet water-reservoirs as one finds them in Israel;
(3) the upper seas and rivers, oceans lower than our landmass; (4) the abode of the dead; (5) the abode of the evil spirits, ‘hell’. The last two meanings are the only ones found in the New Testament.
Bible References:
1.1 Corinthians 13:9 2.Revelation 22:18–19 3.2 Peter 1:20 4.1 Corinthians 11:16 5.Revelation 9:1–2
