The Book of Revelations Chapter 20
Verse 1-6
(1) The angel that will subdue Satan is anonymous. It is not Jesus Himself, nor is it Michael or Gabriel or any other high-ranking angel. This is a dramatic declaration that Satan is not God’s opposite or equal; and that God could easily stop Satan’s activity at any time. Yet God allows Satan to continue, because even in his evil, he indirectly serves the purposes of God.
(2) Now we have had to work out what is symbolic and what is real or literal all through the book of Revelations, so is this a literal act? Certainly it is. The battle is literal; the taking of the Beast and the False Prophet is literal; the slaying of the kings and their armies is literal; Satan is literal; and his binding must be equally literal.
(3) This shows us Satan’s main mode of attack is revealed. Satan is a deceiver, so the most potent defence and weapon against Satan is the truth of God’s word, and again this is why we MUST ALWAYS check everything we are taught by holding it up the Bible to see if it fits with God’s word.
-NEVER TRUST YOUR ETERNAL SOUL TO A HUMAN TEACHER!-
(4-6) These saints reign with Jesus for the same period of time that Satan is bound and they administrate the kingdom of Jesus Christ over the earth for this 1000 years.
“Beheaded” is actually a more exact translation than was needed ; the ancient Greek word really means “executed.” They are specifically mentioned so as to encourage them. This is special vindication for Tribulation saints. They suffered under Antichrist who had said, “I will rule the earth;” now they are in authority and Antichrist is destroyed.
This firstresurrection is only for the people who have been killed during the tribulation period and have been killed as martyrs for defending God.
The Jehovah Wittiness have taken this to an extreme level by saying there will be classes in Heaven, where this is somewhat true but only during this 1000 year period.
Verse 7-10
(7-8) In this we see the reason God has for the Millennial Kingdom period and allowing this final rebellion.
For all of human history, man has wanted to blame his sinful condition on his environment. “Of course I turned out the way I did. Did you see the family I came from? Did you see the scheme I grew up in?” With the Millennial, God will give mankind a thousand years of a near perfect environment – with no Satan. But at the end of the 1,000 years, man will still rebel against God at his first opportunity. This will powerfully demonstrate that the problem is in us, and not in our environment.
(9-10) We shouldn’t even call this a final battle, because there is no battle. The fight is over before it begins. At this point, God finally deals with the devil and his followers forever. After this battle, Satan is then judged and tormented forever – together with the beast and the false prophet, who were cast into the lake of fire at the beginning of the thousand years. The presence of the beast and the false prophet in the lake of fire after a thousand years argues against annihilationism. Which is the idea that after a period the souls of those being tortured will be released or destroyed by God to end their sufferings. In eternal punishment, a thousand years is just the beginning as it never ends.
(11) This is Jesus himself sitting on the white thrown preparing to judge the population of the earth.
Bible scholars believe that Christians will never appear before this great white throne. It isn’t because we can hide from it – no one can. The idea is that we are spared from this judgment because our sins have already been judged in Jesus at the cross.
However, Christians will have to stand before another throne – the judgment seat of Christ. In which we will be judged not to see if we are worthy to enter Heaven and eternal glory, but to judge us on how we acted and this will determine what role we will play in Heaven.
(12-13) This is not a trial, trying to determine what the facts are, as the facts are in. What we have here is now the sentencing of someone already condemned. Their standing posture means that they are now about to be sentenced.
The sea giving up its dead is just a poetic way of saying even the unburied will have to face judgment as there will be no escape.
The books that will be opened for the dammed, show that there will be levels of punishment for those sent to hell (see Mathew 11) as God is fair it would seem only fair that Hitler will receive a harsher punishment than the old lady from down the street, even though they will both be sent to hell.
(14-15) The last traces of sin are now destroyed as death and the grave were the results of sin on the earth and they are now gone.