Revelation 20

As we come to the final few chapters of this book, we remember that the Apostle John has shown us the end of all things more than once, sometimes very briefly, and then has returned to the whole period of struggle that is the New Testament age. Revelation 20 is one of those times when we learn again what it is like to live in a world where we face intense opposition and where we need to endure, persevere, and remain faithful to the Lord.

That period of New Testament life has earlier been symbolically defined as three and a half, following an Old Testament prophetic model. See Daniel 12:14. But just as the people of God can be represented by a number of 12 times 12,000 and also as a much larger number in a different vision, the gospel age can be spoken of in one place with the number of three and a half, and in another place as having a duration of a thousand years. In the second case the point of such a large number is to inform the readers of Revelation that this period could continue for a very long time, even well beyond the lifespan of any of the original recipients of this book.

During that “thousand years” Satan is bound in this specific way, “so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended.” At the end of the New Testament age it would appear from here and from 2 Thessalonians 2, that there will be a period of apostasy where Satan and a man of lawlessness will play a particular role in a period of distress for the church that will end in the return of Christ and in final judgment.

During this thousand years of gospel life, the Word will be brought to the nations, but not without the kind of cost that messengers of Christ faced even in the first century. There will be some who will lose their lives because they bear the testimony of Jesus and proclaim the Word of God. Also during that time the church in heaven will be continually growing. The lives of those who suffer for Christ on earth shall never die. They live and reign with Him in heaven during this period. Those who are not in Christ will not be with them in the present heavens. They will be in a place of death, and not a place of life. When Jesus said to the thief on the cross, “Today you will be with Me in paradise,” He was acknowledging the existence of the Paradise of God, the present heavens. To be in that great place is to experience the first resurrection. Those who are there had to experience their own bodily death, a first death, but they will never know the second death of hell. Hell has no power over them. They are servants of Jesus in the place that He told us about as He was getting ready to leave. He said, “I go to prepare a place for you, so that where I am you may be also.” This is where we spend our time during the New Testament age once our days on earth are done.

But soon the end will come. Satan will have His brief release before the return of the Lord, and there will be a great apostasy as the nations are deceived once more. He will gather together the enemies of God for battle, deceiving many who will not abide in Christ. They will make war against those who do proclaim the message of the Lamb of God and call upon the Name of the Lord. But God will bring about the final defeat of those who oppose Him, and will rescue the faithful.

Then the devil will be utterly separated from the people of the kingdom of God forever. Like the beast and the false prophet, he will be cast into the lake of fire, and will face eternal torment together with all who do not know God, and who do not obey the gospel of the Savior who gave His life for us. See 2 Thessalonians 1.

How will the earth be judged? As God has promised, an appointed Day of Judgment is coming. All the dead will come before the King of Life, Jesus Christ. The only hope for anyone on that day is that the righteousness of the Lord Jesus would be credited to his account. Those who have their names written in the Lamb's Book of Life will be counted as righteous and their deeds of faith working out in love will be remembered. See Matthew 25.

What a gift of love! Before you were born, the gift of God's love for you in particular was written in His eternal decree. In the fullness of the Old Covenant age, God sent His Son. Your name was written on the palms of His hands. Your sin was atoned for. By the work of the Spirit of Life sent forth from the Father and the Son, you were granted faith and you called upon the Name of the Lord. You were immediately credited with all the righteousness that God demanded according to His plan for you in Christ. Throughout your days you have lived for Him, loved Him, worshiped Him, and some have even been granted the privilege of dying for His Name. And when the fullness of time comes again, this time at the end of the New Testament era, when the three and a half times are over, when the thousand years are completed, when the false prophet, the beast, and even the devil are removed from this earth, you will be openly acknowledged and acquitted before the throne of God in Christ, for you are a son of God in Jesus.

When that work of final judgment is finished, death will die, and the grave will be buried beyond the reach of man and beyond the borders of the renewed earth. You will never have to face the second death. Jesus did that for you on the cross. You will live with Him and with all the people of God forever.