HAS SATAN BEEN RELEASED?
Most people, including many Christians, would not even understand the meaning behind this question, let alone know the answer. Yet it may be the most important question to ask when it comes to biblical eschatology, or the study of end time prophecy. The premise for this question is found in Revelation 20:1-3,7-9, where we read:
“Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more til the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while….Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea. They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them.”
Central to the timing of Satan’s binding and release is understanding what and when the “thousand years” is. Most Christians who are even aware of this topic know it as the millennium doctrine, or more precisely, pre-millennialism, which teaches that following Jesus’ return there will be a thousand-year golden age of peace and physical abundance. Thus it follows that Satan has not yet been bound, and therefore, his release is at least a thousand years in the future. So the topic of Satan’s release usually elicits a yawn. So what? It does not concern me, and it is so far off.
As an aside, let’s consider a couple of questions. At the end of a thousand years of peace and abundance under the reign of Christ and the saints made immortal, when the knowledge of God fills the earth, why would Satan be released in order to spoil everything? And where have his rebels bent on genocide toward the saints been hiding? No believer in the millennium doctrine has ever had a clue that would help answer these questions.
The apostle John wrote, “So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world” (Rev. 12:9). Satan’s chief weapon has always been deceit. The apostle Paul wrote, “…the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness…” (II Cor. 11:3). Jesus said, “…When he [Satan] speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it” (Jn. 8:44). Again, Paul wrote, “Whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe…” (II Cor. 4:4); “In which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2).
These passages reveal an ancient, evil, powerful, omni-present spirit which has swayed the minds of all mankind, shackling the nations through deception into spiritual ignorance, and moving man to rebel against his Creator. The scriptures reveal that when Jesus came to this earth mankind was under a shadow of darkness and death cast by Satan (Mtt. 4:16). It was, and had been, a world filled with idolatry, wherein man unwittingly worshiped the “god of this age”—Satan! Jesus came to end this spiritual monopoly on the minds of men.
The oldest prophecy in the Bible predicted Jesus’ victory over Satan. God told the serpent in the Garden that one day Eve’s “seed,” the Christ, will “bruise your head” (Gen. 3:15). Immediately following his baptism and anointing by the Holy Spirit, “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil” (Mtt. 4:1). Satan tried to seduce God in the flesh to worship him! Jesus’ first act as the Christ was to begin to fulfill that oldest of prophecies, as he overcame Satan’s temptations. And so began many confrontations between Jesus and Satan’s minions, the demons.
Satan and his demons knew that when Jesus came, their time of unrestrained influence was nearly at an end. Two demons actually wondered if their time had been cut short when they asked Jesus, “What have we to do with you, Jesus, you Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?” (Mtt. 8:29). Before the time of what? Before the time when Satan and his demons would be restrained. Just days before his death, Jesus predicted, “…now the ruler of this world [Satan] will be cast out” (Jn. 12:31). And again, on the night of his arrest, Jesus proclaimed, “…the ruler of this world is judged” (Jn. 16:11).
Paul showed that at the cross Jesus triumphed over the evil spirit world, when he wrote, “Having disarmed principalities and powers, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it” (Col. 2:15). In Hebrews we read, “[Jesus], through death…destroy[ed] him who had the power of death, that is, the Devil” (2:14). John wrote, “…For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the Devil” (I Jn. 3:8).
While speaking to the Pharisees in the context of the kingdom of God versus the kingdom of Satan, Jesus delivered a most compelling and revealing parable (Mtt. 12:22-29). He said the Devil would have to be bound before his house could be plundered. These scriptures all show that something earth-shattering happened at the cross—Satan was bound nearly two thousand years ago. This changes everything concerning the timing of Satan’s release! It makes it relevant, personal, and perhaps even imminent.
Now some would reasonably argue: if the Devil is presently bound, how can he still be at large “like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (I Pet. 5:8)? The answer is: the binding of Satan is a specific restriction on his ability to “deceive the nations,” better translated “Gentiles,” not all other activities. Remember the story of Job and the specific restrictions God put on Satan. Why has God put restraints on Satan during the church age?
Let’s ask, why did Satan need to be bound? As mentioned earlier, Jesus came into a world “blinded” and enslaved by the Devil, under a shroud of spiritual darkness and death—a world filled with idolatry and polytheism. When one reads about the faithful men and women recorded in the Old Testament and Hebrews 11 and counts up how many people of faith there were in the four millennia prior to Jesus, the sum represents only a tiny handful of people compared with the millions who lived alongside them. And further, how many from that tiny handful were Gentiles? For the gospel to spread like a mustard seed or like leaven, something had to be done about the Devil!
God has restrained the Devil so that the kingdom of God (the church), armed with the light of the gospel, could plunder his house (a world of darkness and death) like Christian soldiers, winning souls for Christ! Jesus told Paul that he was sending him to the Gentiles “to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God…” (Acts 26:18). Paul could have gotten nowhere in his ministry among the Gentiles without Satan being restrained. And ever since, Satan has been unable to prevent the spread of the gospel to the Gentiles. Another way Satan is bound is that he is unable to destroy the church. And finally, Satan cannot penetrate a Christian’s “shield of faith” in order to compromise his relationship with God.
Revelation 20:4-6 describe what takes place between Satan’s binding and release. We see the saints reigning as kings over sin. As priests they offer up spiritual sacrifices to God, which is expressing love toward God and their neighbor. They are appointed to judge between good and evil. And because of their faithfulness to a God the world hates, they are persecuted and martyred. The “thousand years” is a symbolic term for the relatively long church age, not some future golden age. As the church age draws to a close, prior to Jesus’ return, Satan will be released. He will revert to what he had been allowed to do before Jesus’ first coming—deceive the nations—and then lead them in a war against Christians.
How many people know this truth? Certainly not the majority of the people in the world who are non-Christians. But the sad and alarming fact is that most Christians are unaware as well. Why? They have been deceived by the Rapture teaching and pre-millennialism. These twin errors are the biggest reason why most Christians today are unaware and unready for what Satan will launch upon them in the end times.
Now let’s ask, just who are “Gog and Magog”? In the literal sense, they have been impossible to identify, since so many differing theories and opinions abound. Therefore, they must be understood symbolically, since they are mentioned in a symbolic passage within a book that is nearly wholly symbolic. In order to understand the symbolism, we must first examine some passages in the Old Testament. In Jeremiah 31, we read, “‘Behold, the days are coming,’ says the LORD, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah…and I will be their God, and they shall be my people’” (v31,33).
Most Christians understand that this “new covenant” is the one Jesus ratified with his blood, and that Israel and Judah are symbolic of the New Israel, the “Israel of God” (Gal. 6:16), the church comprised of the saints. The prophet Ezekiel described this covenant using some of the same language, when he wrote, “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean…I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you…I will put my Spirit within you…you shall be my people, and I will be your God” (36:25-28).
The next chapter of Ezekiel continues the theme with a vision filled with symbolic meaning. The vision answers the question: Who are those whom God calls “my people, with whom He will make a new covenant? Ezekiel sees a valley full of dry human bones which come to life when watered with God’s Holy Spirit (Ezek. 37:1-14). Who are these dead people? Or more intriguingly, what kind of dead people are these? That’s right, the Bible identifies several kinds of dead people. Jesus spoke of two kinds, when he said, “let the dead bury their own dead” (Mtt. 8:22; Lk. 9:60). There are two kinds of people who are buried: “the dead in Christ” (I Thes. 4:16), who will be resurrected to immortality at Jesus’ return; and those who are just dead. Jude 12 even mentions those who are “twice dead.”
The other kind of dead Jesus referenced make up the majority of mankind who are “dead in [their] trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1,5; Col. 2:13), because the “wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23), and “all have sinned” (Rom. 3:23). This is a kind of spiritual death toward God. Some even use this term when referring to someone who has deeply offended them, saying, he/she is dead to me.
Ezekiel’s dry bones represent still another kind of dead people—those who are brought back to life. God’s Spirit which waters the bones symbolizes “the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Tit. 3:5). Only those imparted with the Holy Spirit have “passed from death into life” (Jn. 5:24; I Jn. 3:14). So the dry bones brought back to life symbolize Christians—the New Israel—throughout the Christian era. These are the people who join the “new covenant” with God through Jesus.
Ezekiel 37:15-28 describe symbolically the kind of people which comprise the New Israel. Unlike Old Testament Israel, which was rebellious, and which fracture into “two kingdoms” that warred with one another, the Israel of God is one unified kingdom, at peace, under their “king,” Jesus. That is why the saints are said to comprise the symbolic “twelve tribes” of the New Israel (Acts 26:7; Jas. 1:1). Once again God uses the new covenant language, “so shall they be my people, and I will be their God” (Ezek. 37:23).
Next, Ezekiel 38,39 describe what will take place in the “last years” (38:8) of the Christian era. We are introduced to Gog and Magog, who will lead a confederacy of nations in a war against Israel, otherwise known as the “War of Gog and Magog.” Many teachers of biblical prophecy believe this is a future war between Russia and her allies and the Jewish state of Israel. They are wrong because they fail to identify who Israel is in this prophecy. It is as if they do not even bother to examine the description of her. So let us do that.
We read, “all of them dwell safely” (38:8). This could not be a worse description of the Jewish state, which has been surrounded by inveterate enemies since its inception. On the other hand, the Israel of God has always dwelled safely with the knowledge and faith that they are “the sheep of [God’s] pasture.” Next we read, “I will go up against a land of unwalled villages; I will go up to a peaceful people, who dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates” (38:11). Again, the Jewish state is armed to the teeth with both defensive and offensive weaponry. But Ezekiel’s Israel is a people of peace who rely on the God of Hosts for their defense.
In Revelation’s abbreviated version of this war the adversary of Gog and Magog is certainly not the Jewish state. It is the “camp of the saints and the beloved city” (Rev. 20:9). The Bible often depicts Christians as pilgrims and sojourners camping as aliens apart from the world during this age. Collectively they are “the beloved city” or “heavenly Jerusalem” (Heb. 12:22,23). Alternately, the Jerusalem of the Jewish state is “called Sodom and Egypt” (Rev. 11:8).
So again we ask, who are Gog and Magog and their confederates? There is absolutely no consensus among theologians. In truth, it does not really matter since they are only named as symbolic enemies of Christianity used by Satan following his release. Most of these nations do not even exist today. They were literal nations at the time Ezekiel recorded his vision, and they may have been seen as potential enemies to 6th century B.C. Jews. But it does not matter since this war never happened in ancient times. In the future, Gog and Magog will be people from the “four corners of the earth” (Rev. 20:8), not just North Africa and the Near East. Revelation simply uses them as code words to connect us to Ezekiel’s account.
Jesus promised that, like himself, his faithful disciples would be persecuted by a Satan-led world that hates them. Nevertheless, he declared, “On this rock [himself] I will build my church, and the gates of hades [grave] shall not prevail against it” (Mtt. 16:18). Part of Satan’s restraint was that he would never be allowed to destroy the church of God, though he would try ceaselessly. Throughout the church age God has protected His church from Satan (Rev. 12:6).
Following his release, Satan will launch a “war in heaven,” one that he will lose (Rev. 12:7-9). This coincides with the prophecy in Daniel, which says, “At that time Michael shall stand up, that great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people; and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation” (Dan. 12:1). This time is called the “Great Tribulation”—the worst time of suffering in all human history (Jer. 30:7; Mtt. 24:21).
Remember, Satan “must be released for [only] a little while” (Rev. 12:3). That is why we read that following his defeat, Satan “has come down…having great wrath, because he knows that he has [only] a short time” (Rev. 12:12). So he immediately begins to “persecute” Christians (v13-16), with the goal of destroying Christianity altogether. We see in this passage that he will be unsuccessful. Nevertheless, this persecution is significant, because an upsurge of hatred, intolerance, and persecution of Christians around the world is perhaps the most important early sign of the end times! Do we see an upsurge? By any measure we certainly have seen an increase in the persecution of people of faith who hold to their beliefs in the last few years. Could this signal that Satan has been released? We will only know if it continues to worsen to a degree that makes it unmistakable.
But Satan never gives up, never admits defeat. And so following his failure to destroy Christianity, we read what he does next, “And the dragon was enraged with the woman [saints], and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Rev. 12:17). The “rest” means the last generation of Christians in this age. It says that Satan “went to make war,” but the original Greek text is more revealing. It says he “departed, went away, went off” in order to make plans for his final effort to destroy God’s church.
The story continues in Revelation 13:1-9, which reveal what this final effort entails. Satan creates a worldwide state, which is called the “beast,” for the express purpose “to make war with the saints and to overcome them.” When this global state emerges, it will be a clear and unmistakable sign that the “thousand years”—church age—has ended, and that Satan has already been released. Gog and Magog, code words for the armies of the Beast, will be released to kill Christians worldwide!
Next in the story, “another beast” is introduced (Rev. 13:11-18), which is representative of the human leader of this end time Satanic state. Elsewhere he is identified as the “false prophet” (Rev. 19:20), and the “man of sin” (II Thes. 2:1-12). By the power of his signs and miracles he will enforce worldwide state worship upon the penalty of death. All Christians alive at this time will find themselves facing their own personal “fiery furnace” like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego (Dan. 3). The Rapture theory will have been revealed to be the error it has always been.
The returning Jesus Christ will destroy Satan’s final kingdom and Satan himself in the symbolic “lake of fire” (Rev. 19:19-21). Jesus said, “Indeed, the Devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation…Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Rev. 2:10). Yes, those Christians in the end times, who “did not love their lives to the death” (Rev. 12:11), will be resurrected to immortality and glorification!