King James Version, with Nii Okai's journal notes · 8 notes
1And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
2And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
3And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
4And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
A glimpse into eternity
Why was it possible for the devil in Rev 20:4-10 to come back and deceive the nations after a thousand years? And this was under the Christ and the saints.
And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
The question I ask is this: what kind of system was being run that allowed such rebellion, even to the point of the devil amassing an army for himself? Only for that army and the devil to be destroyed once and for all with all evil men.
I think it is a similar system, in a sense, that God is running now, where we live in a world where men call the shots. We have free will and freely exercise it.
It seems evil is running amok perpetually, but in the scheme of God this will come to an end. We are flesh and mortal, so this evil world seems to go on and on, but to God it is but just a few moments in time and it will all be over.
So also in the reign of Christ and the saints we see the reign a thousand years. Yes, wow, a thousand years is a long time, but it is mentioned in just a single verse as if it is nothing.
And during those thousand years there will be order and righteousness and the goodness of the Lord, but men will still be free-willed.
That is why after the thousand years, when the devil is let loose one more time, he is able to deceive the nations again.
This shows in the rule of God and his Christ men could still choose to rebel. And they did when the opportunity came.
So it is not truly that God will wave some magic wand and all men will be righteous and holy and love him.
No, not at all, just that under his reign, righteousness and justice will be the order of the day.
Until once more the devil is let loose and he begins his deception. I just wonder, will the men of that time know about the prophecy in the book of Revelations?
Will they know that they are just part of a play book, and the devil himself is also within that play book? And that the words of the devil and the seeming liberty with which he is running amok and gathering the nations is only being allowed by God? He, the devil, is really not powerful and independent as he postulates.
That he has actually been allowed, and this allowance was prophesied thousands of years ago. Will men even be aware of that prophecy for them to resist the devil?
This makes me wonder, our world we live in today, could it not be the same thing that is going on?
That we are all just part of God’s play book that was prophesied to the world that then was, and we that are alive today are just acting players in the book.
And the devil is only doing so much as he is allowed to. We know the story of the future of our world through prophecies like Revelations, yet the past of our world is shrouded in mystery and shadows. So many unanswered questions, and it seems we just dropped in the middle of nowhere, with no sense of history and of the past to know exactly what is going on.
There are some hints here and there, but mostly it is just theories.
I believe we are part of a prophecy that was given to a world that lived, and now we, looking into the future, see another world coming and what their own play book will be like, but they will not have that awareness like we do. We are looking into the future and will be alive to witness it, but they will be looking at the past and what will be at that time their present.
However, the Spirit of God will continue to give wisdom and prompt men of the future, so men are kept in the ways of righteousness, just as he does in our world today.
5But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
So what becomes of those who were righteous but died before the tribulation? What happens to them? Considering that mention is specifically made of those who were martyred in the tribulation.
But I think it goes without saying that this resurrection of the martyrs includes the resurrection of all righteous people.
The same applies to the great white throne judgement. All the wicked dead in all ages time past will be resurrected and judged.
6Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
7And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
Is it not interesting that this was not the first time that the devil was going to gather an army unsuccessfully against God's chosen ones?
He did that in the battle at Megiddo,
did same when he tried to pursue the man child,
he did same in the dateless past when he tried to be like the Most High and was cast down.
In all these he led armies of angels and of men.
It is the case that the devil has been leading men and nations for a really long time, and the cycles keep repeating themselves.
He has become skilled at deceiving nations of men and leading them against the Lord, in constant rebellion and in final grand wars that end his reign.
But at the end of time there will be one final battle to end and permanently break this cycle.
And a stark memory will be left in the annals of history that rebellion against God does not pay.
8And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
9And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
So the living people of the earth did not like the government of Christ. Imagine a world of strict adherence to the tenets of Christianity. I can only imagine how many people will hate that.
10And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
11And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
From the sound of this verse, the judgement was completed within a period, because the earth and the heavens fled away, then the judgement, after which the new heavens and earth were formed, in which is no evil or anything that defileth.
So all of these judgements must have been completed before the new heavens and earth, but after the old earth and heaven fled away.
12And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
13And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
14And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
15And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
Will some people escape who were in hell prior? I doubt. But if none escape, why go through the whole judgement process and setting up thrones, if the verdict was final and already known?
I guess it is the same reason for which we hold court sessions today: so the guilty have a fair trial and are proved guilty. Before finally being punished eternally.
Under this judgement, does that mean some were found written in the book of life? If not, and they were all not found in the book of life, then what was the point of judgement, when obviously they were going to end up all in the lake of fire?
The counter-argument is that it will be unjust to cast people into the lake of fire without judgement.
The fact that you are before the all-knowing God who knows you are guilty doesn't make it right that you are condemned without trial and judgement.
From the reading of this passage, it seems all righteous resurrected in the first resurrection and reigned a thousand years with Christ, whiles the wicked were reserved for the moment.
Worth noting also is the fact that there will be people alive when Christ first comes — what happens to all those nations who are alive?
Definitely there will be righteous and wicked amongst them, and the apathetic.
But at the coming of the Lord the righteous will be taken, the wicked destroyed, and Christ with the saints will rule over this world.
There will still be wickedness and good, but there will be a general sense of peace and good righteous governance under Christ and his ministers and parliamentarians, i.e. the saints.
But men will have the choice to be good or wicked, but the wicked will hide because of the righteous reign of Christ.
That is why after a thousand years, when the devil is released, he is still able to gather nations unto him.
We see again later in chapter 21 that after the wicked are condemned after the thousand years, the living nations will have the chance to bring their glory to the New Jerusalem. It even says their kings will do that.
I believe these kings will be saints.
Why in the world would other books be opened, when at the end of the day it is the book of life that will be the determining factor?
Just imagine this, that a court session and accused persons are brought in; immediately a book is opened and you are told your name is not found in the book, thus you are guilty.
You are also told the book is not wrong.
Your response would be: at least I have got to know what my crime is, where I erred against the law, rather than to be slapped with such a sentence.
So therefore other books are opened, which show all the works of men. Then finally the book of life is opened, and whosoever was not found written therein is cast in the lake of fire.
I wonder how long this whole process will take, considering the billions of people to be judged.