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Revelation and Human Reality

This session discusses the release of Satan after the millennium, exploring why it must happen and the consequences it brings. The session also looks at the battle of Gog and Magog, drawing insights from biblical prophecies.

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Revelation and Human Reality

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  1. Revelation and Human Reality Session 55 A-level Amphitheater LLUMC Feb 19, 2011, 10:30-11:30 AM

  2. Before and After ‘the Millennium’ BEFORE AFTER Satan released Second resurrection • Satan bound • First resurrection ‘1000 YEARS’

  3. Second Coming of Christ Eternity The Church Age Millennium Great Tribulation Summary • Second coming before the 1000 years • Earth desolate duringthe 1000 years • ‘New earth’ afterthe 1000 years

  4. In Search of the Logic for Satan’s Release • If forceful action can be taken, why was it not done earlier? • Why must Satan be released?

  5. After the Thousand Years Rev 20:7-9a When the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, in order to gather them for battle; they are as numerous as the sands of the sea. They marched up over the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city.

  6. Satan’s Release and the Second Resurrection NRS Revelation 20:5 (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection.

  7. After the Thousand Years Satan will be released from his prison Satan will deceive the nations Satan will gather the nations for battle Gog and Magog echo the eschatological battle in Ezekiel (Ezek 38 + 39) They are many – as numerous as the sands of the sea. They are confident – marching up over the breadth of the earth and surrounding the camp of the saints and the beloved city.

  8. End of the Cosmic Conflict BEGINNING 12:7 And war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels had to war against the dragon. BEGINNING OF THE END 12:17 Then the dragon … went off to make war on the remnant of her seed… THE END20:8 Satan will “gather them for war”

  9. The Re-Readerand ‘the Beloved City’ “And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (21:2). “They marched up over the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city” (20:9). “And the wine press was trodden outside the city” (14:20).

  10. OT Background - 1 Ezek 38:14-16 Therefore, mortal, prophesy, and say to Gog: Thus says the Lord GOD: On that day when my people Israel are living securely, you will rouse yourself and come from your place out of the remotest parts of the north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great horde, a mighty army; you will come up against my people Israel, like a cloud covering the earth. In the latter days I will bring you against my land, so that the nations may know me, when through you, O Gog, I display my holiness before their eyes.

  11. OT Background - 2 Ezekiel 38:18-20 On that day, when Gog comes against the land of Israel, says the Lord GOD, my wrath shall be aroused. For in my jealousy and in my blazing wrath I declare: On that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel; the fish of the sea, and the birds of the air, and the animals of the field, and all creeping things that creep on the ground, and all human beings that are on the face of the earth, shall quake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the cliffs shall fall, and every wall shall tumble to the ground.

  12. OT Background - 3 NRS Ezekiel 38:21 I will summon the sword against Gog in all my mountains, says the Lord GOD; the swords of all will be against their comrades. Timeout: What is happening in the ranks of Gog?

  13. OT Background - 4 Ezekiel 38:22-23 With pestilence and bloodshed I will enter into judgment with him; and I will pour down torrential rains and hailstones, fire and sulfur, upon him and his troops and the many peoples that are with him. So I will display my greatness and my holiness and make myself known in the eyes of many nations. Then they shall know that I am the LORD.

  14. Cosmic Conflict Over Rev 20:9b And fire came down from heaven and consumed them. Rev 20:10 And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

  15. Question How does Satan come to an end [and why we should ask the question]? Is Satan destroyed by fire from without?

  16. Destruction in the Trumpet Sequence AGENT: “star that had fallen from heaven to earth” (9:1), “the angel of the bottomless pit; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he is called Apollyon” (9:11) ACTION: “fire and smoke and sulfur” (9:17-18),

  17. Destruction in the Bowl Sequence “And the ten horns that you saw, they and the beast will hate the whore; they will make her desolate and naked; they will devour her flesh and burn her up with fire” (17:16).

  18. Destruction in the OT Antecedent “I will summon the sword against Gog in all my mountains, says the Lord God; the swords of all will be against their comrades” (Ezek 38:21).Sverre Bøe, Gog and Magog: Ezekiel 38-39 as pre-text for Revelation 19,17-21 and 20,7- 10 (WUNT 2.135; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2001), 115.

  19. Destruction Coming to the Covering Cherub • “I made fire come out from within you, it consumed you” (Ezek 28:18). • S. Fisch: “the evil in the midst of Tyre will be the flame which reduces her to a heap of burnt ruins”(Ezekiel, 193). • Moshe Greenberg: “fire from your midst” signifies “evil causing its own destruction.” (Ezekiel 21-37, 587).

  20. Destruction in 1 Enoch In those days, the father will be beaten together with his sons, in one place; and brothers shall fall together with their friends, in death, until a stream shall flow with their blood. For a man shall not be able to withhold his hands from his sons nor from (his) sons’ sons in order to kill them. Nor is it possible for the sinner to withhold his hands from his honoured brother. From dawn until the sun sets, they shall slay each other. The horse shall walk through the blood of sinners up to his chest; and the chariot shall sink down up to its top (1 Enoch 100:3).

  21. Destruction Outside the City “If you conquer, I will make you a pillar in the temple of my God; you will never go out of it. I will write on you the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem that comes down from my God out of heaven” (3:12).

  22. Destruction according to Origen • “Scripture indicates that every sinner kindles for himself the flame of his own fire, and is not plunged into a fire which has been previously kindled by someone else or which existed before him.” Origen, First Principles 2.20.4 (trans. G. W. Butterworth; London: SPCK, 1936).

  23. After the Thousand Years Rev 20:9 They marched up over the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city.

  24. Up They March - 1 Up they march, guided to their chosen destination by the newly liberated leader. Up they march, striding majestically “over the breadth of the earth” until the forces surround “the camp of the saints and the beloved city” (20:9). Up they march, “as numerous as the sands of the sea.”

  25. Up They March - 2 Up they march, the body language of the marchers exuding confidence that the city and its inhabitants have no way of escape (20:8, 9). Up they march, heading brazenly in the direction of the unnamable ḥašmal of Ezekiel’s vision (Ezek 1:4), the fiery center of the divine presence.

  26. Up They March - 3 Up they march, heading witlessly toward “the holy mountain of God” and “the stones of fire.” Up they march, toward an emanation of glory so intense that God in the beginning appointed an “anointed cherub who covers” in order to cushion the dazzling impact of the unveiled glory (Ezek 28:14, NASB).

  27. Up They March - 4 Up they march, advancing under the spell of the fallen cherub toward the One whose unveiled face no mortal can see and live (Ex 33:20; Rev cf. 22:4). At that point, says the Bible, ……..(20:9).

  28. In Search for the Logic for Satan’s Release When the voice of “the ancient serpent” is heard in Genesis, it charges deprivation of freedom as the fundamental characteristic of the divine government (Gen 3:1). It is the logic of freedom that leads to Satan’s release, and it is within the logic of freedom, precisely the value said to be lacking in the divine character, that Satan proceeds to work his own undoing (20:7-9). Tonstad, Saving God’s Reputation, 155.

  29. Further Reading J. Webb Mealy, After the Thousand Years. Resurrection and Judgment in Revelation 20 (JSNT Sup 70; Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1992).

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