Revelation tells us about what is going to occur at the tip of this age. In easy terms, God’s victory over death and sin shall be universally and completely manifest in creation. He will make all things right. The Devil, his angels, and all who selected his ways shall be separated from the ultimate union between heaven and earth. And God’s people will live with him in a restored recent creation.
Yet, once we read through Revelation, the imagery and narrative can easily confuse us. We wander off in the main points. Symbol and literal seem mixed and turn out to be difficult to navigate for any sure interpretation. One moment inside God’s restoration causes us particular pause.
After Christ returns and defeats evil, Satan is imprisoned. Then, after 1,000 years, God releases the Devil again to wreak havoc. Why would he do that?
Where Does the Bible Talk in regards to the Release of Satan?
Revelation 20:7-10 talks in regards to the release of Satan after the thousand-year reign of Christ, often called the Millennial Reign.
Even before the Millennial Reign, Jesus returns to earth in glory to defeat the Devil and his servants. Revelation 19 shows Jesus because the victorious King riding on a white horse. Christ finally asserts his authority over the nations and establishes his dominion. God throws the Antichrist and the false prophet (who’ve each oppressed the righteous through Babylon) into the Lake of Fire, ending their rule.
Beginning in Revelation 20, an angel descends from heaven and binds the Devil with chains and locks him away. This imprisonment lasts for a thousand years. Revelation gives the rationale—this keeps Satan from deceiving the remaining nations. Christ rules from Jerusalem, and the thousand-year reign is certainly one of peace and justice. Those martyred for faith in Jesus also return and reign with him in what scholars call the primary resurrection.
The Millennial Reign harkens back to Old Testament prophecies regarding the Messiah’s reign of peace and justice. Isaiah 2:4 and 11:6-9 declare there shall be a time of worldwide harmony from the messianic rule, where nations not go to war and creation begins an awesome restoration.
Revelation leads us to this event, a success of Old Testament guarantees where God shows the principles of what he designed Eden and good government to be.
However, at the tip of the thousand years, God releases Satan from his prison.
What Happens after the Release of Satan?
When God releases Satan after the Millennial Reign, Satan does what he has been doing for hundreds of years. Jesus declares in regards to the Devil, “He was a murderer from the start, and doesn’t stand in the reality, because there isn’t a truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he’s a liar and the daddy of lies” (John 8:44).
Satan’s name means “adversary” or “accuser,” implying someone who opposes or challenges others. The Greek Satanas keeps the identical meaning. The Devil resists and opposes God first, and from that revolt, all of the Lord wills and creates, including the special role for humanity.
Therefore, upon Satan’s release from the Abyss prison, Satan deceives the people of the world, symbolized as Gog and Magog. Satan gathers an enormous army to rebel against God. The nations are given a alternative: the righteous rule of Christ or the lies of the Devil. The armies of Satan besiege the “camp of the saints and the beloved city,” which is probably going Jerusalem.
However, the attack doesn’t last long. Fire descends from heaven and destroys the armies. God demonstrates his power and faithfulness to guard his people. God then finally throws Satan into the Lake of Fire with the Antichrist and the false prophet.
The next events unfold quickly. With Satan gone ceaselessly, Revelation describes the Great White Throne Judgment, where all people from all of time come to face before God and are judged in response to the Book of Life. Those names not present in the book have the identical fate as Satan and are forged into the Lake of Fire. People present in the Book of Life see the brand new age, the brand new heaven and earth.
What Do Different Scholars Say in regards to the Release of Satan?
Interpretations of Revelation vary widely. Some view the entire book as completely symbolic while most view it with some combination of symbolism and literalism. Despite these interpretations, the query stays: Why would God release Satan to deceive people?
Many scholars argue the discharge happens to check humans’ loyalty to God. During the Millennial Reign, Christ rules with complete justice and peace, what humanity claims to long for. But what happens when there’s a alternative? Not everyone who lives during Christ’s earthly reign follows Christ from the guts, in faith. The rule of Jesus could also be perfect, but do people truly consider it’s the higher way? Rebellion comes from the core of the human heart. The “flesh” wants its own way, irrespective of the price. By testing humanity, God confirms the loyalty of those that truly consider in him and may have the reward of the brand new heaven and earth.
G.K. Beale and other scholars note that this revolt shows absolutely the depravity of the human heart. People aren’t principally good in the event that they have such a transparent alternative and choose to rebel against purity and embrace a lie. After a thousand years of perfection and truth, the nations rebel once more. This depravity justifies God’s alternative not to permit them into the brand new heaven and earth. Through permitting this final revolt, God reveals his righteous judgment against the source and nature of sin.
Along with these points, some scholars deal with God’s ultimate defeat of evil. Satan has acted throughout history as the final word adversary against God and the people made in his image. Even after his deception within the Garden of Eden, he continued to oppose God’s redemptive plan. However, at no point does this truly challenge God’s authority. There’s no real battle here. God’s sovereignty allows it for a purpose. He can end it at any time. Revelation assures us God will end such revolt swiftly, each Satan and all who selected to follow him.
Still others primarily view the events as God’s success of Old Testament prophecies. These scholars think many modern Christians have forgotten the prophecies about Jerusalem and Israel, or twisted them to only be symbolic of the church. Revelation places these events ultimately times to indicate God will fulfill his guarantees to the Jews and Jerusalem in literal terms, together with the larger cosmic redemption of all believers.
What Should Christians Today Understand in regards to the Release of Satan?
Some Christians view Revelation as simply in regards to the end times, a future event distant from our on a regular basis lives. The end seems to this point away that it has no impact on today, or perhaps looks like it won’t come in any respect.
These are dangerous thoughts. While Revelation communicates the tip of this age, the book has vital lessons for us today. Jesus talked in regards to the end within the Gospels (Matthew 24-25) for a selected reason. God wants us to live today with the tip in mind. A secure and future hope gives us strength to endure our struggles today.
The first a part of Revelation also includes timely messages to seven churches. Just as we take vital and inspired principles from apostolic letters to other churches, we do the identical from the entire of Revelation, written to the church of its day.
First, Satan’s release after the Millennial Reign leads us to an uncomfortable truth. The nations had been living in perfect righteousness and justice, and creation flourished. When Satan is released, the nations have a really real and literal alternative: living in perfect justice and peace or a lie. They select deception and Satan himself.
This removes excuses for sin. It’s easy depravity. Many people today give excuses for not believing in God. If he’s so good, why do bad things occur? Why is the world so corrupt? Why would God allow that? Or perhaps people blame temptations, as if “the Devil made me do it.”
The release of Satan exposes our rebellious hearts. We say we wish an ideal world, one without death or sin or corruption, and it doesn’t look like an option today. But when it is definitely and literally an option, some people will still rebel against God and follow the lie as an alternative of the reality.
God took centuries to prove this already. The slaves of Egypt cried out to God for deliverance. He freed them and gave the Israelites a land of abundance. He promised they might live a lifetime of abundance and peace in the event that they kept the law he gave through Moses. God would defeat their enemies and provides them countless resources in the event that they would only obey and worship him. What a deal.
The Old Testament becomes a history of human failure to maintain such a deal. The problem? The Old Covenant relied upon our hearts to maintain it. And as Paul tells us, God designed the Law to fail, to indicate us our depravity, very like the discharge of Satan does.
Therefore, God guarantees a recent covenant, one where he transforms the guts. Through Christ and the New Covenant, he removes our depraved and rebellious nature and shares with us his divine nature through the indwelling Spirit.
As we’ve mentioned, the discharge of Satan reminds us of the Garden of Eden. God’s sovereignty allowed the serpent to tempt Adam and Eve, which ultimately led to the Fall. Adam and Eve lived in an ideal place, literal paradise, and so they succumbed to temptation. Jesus, when faced with temptation and despair in a garden, selected to undergo his Father as an alternative. That’s the Spirit given to those that repent.
The release of Satan redeems humanity. It gives humanity one other shot to do the appropriate thing. After living in paradise, some people will select God’s reign when tempted by Satan himself. Not all, but many.
It’s also vital to indicate that the discharge of Satan sets up a alternative between two kingdoms: the Kingdom of God and Babylon. Much of Revelation prior to Christ’s return details the evil and oppressive actions of Babylon, which symbolizes the reign of the Devil on Earth through corrupt empires. Humanity in Revelation had seen the autumn of Babylon and the tip of their leaders, the Antichrist and the false prophet within the Lake of Fire.
After the discharge of Satan, some people select a defeated kingdom, one they saw destroyed by Christ’s return and their leaders sent into everlasting torment. In deciding to follow Satan, they select that end, as well.
The release of Satan should humble us. Left to ourselves, we might rebel. Our depravity earns us everlasting torment. All have sinned. And the wages of sin is death, spiritual and physical.
But we haven’t been left to ourselves. God sent his Son because he loved us a lot. So those that would decide to consider wouldn’t perish but have everlasting life. This should make us fall down and worship God, realizing his great grace and mercy toward us. We can judge the people within the Revelation narrative for openly selecting Satan, but we must realize we might do the identical other than God’s grace. Looking at the discharge of Satan, we must humbly assess our own hearts today. We must select Christ and his kingdom over Satan and the kingdoms of this world now, taking on our cross each day, receiving his recent mercies every morning. We can only do that through his Spirit and love.
Peace.
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