Revelation 20:7-15

This chapter describes key details regarding the millennial kingdom, which will occur immediately after the seven-year Tribulation and the climactic Battle of Armageddon. The millennial kingdom will be a time in which Christ governs a worldwide kingdom on Earth for a thousand years. This lengthy reign will be followed by (1) a final battle with Satan and rebellious people called God and Magog (Rev 20:7-10), (2) a final judgment called the Great White Throne (Rev 20:11-15), and (3) the beginning of the eternal state, complete with a new creation populated exclusively by all who follow God (Rev 21-22).

The millennial kingdom will be a perfect, Christ-led system that replaces the godless, Antichrist-led system. Though Scripture has more to say about this kingdom, especially in the Old Testament (OT) prophets, we’ll focus on what John tells us here in this passage.

In a previous study, we learned that Satan will be bound for a thousand years so that he’ll no means of influence or interaction with the world of any kind (Rev 20:1-3). We also learned that the God’s faithful followers – whether from the OT, the church, or the Tribulation – will be resurrected and given governing roles in his kingdom for a thousand years (Rev 20:4-6).

In this study, we’ll focus on the rest of what John tells us about the future millennial kingdom. First, we’ll discover what happens when Satan is released at the end of this thousand years (Rev 20:7-10). Then, we’ll discover what happens at the final, climactic judgment of mankind (Rev 20:11-15).

Satan will launch a massive, final rebellion against God (Rev 20:7-10).

Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison.

Revelation 20:7

John locates this event at the end of the thousand-year reign of Christ. He has already hinted that this would occur when he said previously that Satan would be released “after these things” (referring to the thousand years) and “for a little while” (Rev 20:3).

At this time, Satan will be released from his complete isolation in the “bottomless pit,” where he will have been bound, secured, and sealed (Rev 20:2-3).

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.

Revelation 20:8

The purpose for Satan’s isolation during the millennial kingdom will be so that he doesn’t “deceive the nations” (Rev 20:3). Yet when he is released at the end of the thousand years, he will resume his deceptive behavior immediately and on a worldwide scale.

The “four corners of the earth” refers to a comprehensive influence that reaches to the most distant places of the world and perhaps even to the four points on a compass – north, south, east, and west.

“Gog and Magog” alludes to an Old Testament (OT) prophecy (Ezek 38:2; 39:1, 6). When studied carefully, this prophecy seems to describe the Battle of Armageddon, which will happen before the millennial kingdom not after (Rev 19:17-21), yet here John invokes this terminology for a military campaign that will occur after the millennial kingdom instead. The best explanation for this challenging scenario seems to be that Ezekiel views both battles as one larger campaign, in the middle of which John places the millennial kingdom.

“Gog” seems to refer to ungodly political and military leaders and “Magog” to the ungodly people and soldiers that follow them. We should avoid trying to specify any particular leaders or nations here because John clearly tells us that they come from all “the nations” from everywhere, not just a particular empire, regime, or people group.

These people will form a massive army of an uncountable number who will gather together for a military battle. This battle will prove that both Satan failed to learn anything from his thousand-year isolation and people failed to learn anything from history, since the Battle of Armageddon – which was very similar to this one – failed royally.

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.

Revelation 20:9

This massive army will converge onto the plains surrounding God’s people, who will be located at “the beloved city,” which is Jerusalem, where Christ himself will have been positioned for a thousand years (Psa 78:68; 87:2).

Reminiscent of when God judged Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 19:24), he will do the same on a larger scale here by consuming these satanically guided leaders and people with fire from heaven. This will be a genuine “scorched earth” strategy.

The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

Revelation 20:10

At the conclusion of this battle, Satan will be cast out forever, not just in the bottomless pit, but in the “lake of fire.” “Where the beast and the false prophet are” reminds us of what happened after the Battle of Armageddon, when these two people were banished before anyone else, including Satan (Rev 19:20).

This will be a place of never-ending torment, not a place of annihilation as some suggest. If going to the lake of fire resulted in annihilation, then how would that reconcile with the antichrist and the false prophet existing there for a thousand years? And torment refers to an actual, sensory experience that will itself be endured “forever and ever.”

• “Day and night” indicates persistent torment (without a pause).
• “Forever and ever” indicates perpetual torment (without an end).

God will judge all nonbelievers at the Great White Throne (Rev 20:11-15).

Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them.

Revelation 20:11

Now that John has established the final end of the antichrist, the false prophet, and – most importantly – Satan, he completes our perspective of God’s judgment against all unbelieving, wicked persons. This final end occurs at “the Great White Throne.”

The double description of great and white indicates both unrivaled authority and righteousness and describes a throne of judgment.

Though John doesn’t immediately identify the person who sat on this throne, it becomes clear it was God, since the following statement says “standing before God” (Rev 20:12).

That the earth and the heaven (a reference to the solar system) “fled away” indicates a full removal of the entire material world in preparation for what will follow. As John will soon explains, there will be “a new heaven and a new earth,” because “the first heaven and the first earth” will have “passed away” (Rev 20:1).

And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books.

Revelation 20:12

John tells us that the people who appear before this throne will have died, which means they will be resurrected. This is what Christ called “the resurrection of condemnation” (John 5:29) and what Daniel described as the resurrection to “shame and everlasting contempt” (Dan 12:2). Everyone who appears at this judgment will receive a guilty verdict.

People from all social classes and positions will appear at this throne, whether “small or great.” God will form his final verdict for each one based upon his permanent, detailed, heavenly record of their lives.

The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works.

Revelation 20:13

Here John reiterates that the people who appear before this throne will appear as the result of a resurrection, since they will return both from “the sea” and from “Death and Hades.” Though the distinction John intends to make between “the sea” and then “Death and Hades” is not clear he may be distinguishing between:

• those whose bodies were “buried” in the oceans and seas and those who were “buried” on land.
• or those who were buried normally and those who were not.

Whatever the case, John ensures that every nonbeliever who’s every died will be included. No one will be exempt from this final judgment.

Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

Revelation 20:14

Here John announces that even death and the grave will also be discarded forever. He uses personification of course, as though these are actual beings, which they are not.

• Paul did this too when he taunted death and hades (1 Cor 15:55),
• The OT prophet Hosea also did this (Hos 13:14).

The point here is that moving forward, death and the grave will no longer be an experience or threat to God’s people for eternity, just as Satan and the influence of ungodly people will no longer be an influence either.

That “this is the second death” probably refers in part to the “second death” of nonbelievers who will have been resurrected from their first death to appear at the Great White Throne judgment. But from an even larger perspective, it refers to the “death of death itself,” the final removal of death itself, not only of those who remain under death’s authority.

And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.

Revelation 20:15

This will not be the last time John mentions this terrible end for nonbelievers, as he will describe the kinds of people who will go there in greater detail in the next chapter (Rev 20:8). But the point he makes here is that they will be thrown into the lake of fire because their name will not appear in the records of the Book of Life.

As we’ve already learned from earlier in Revelation, the names of all believers are indelibly written by God in the Lamb’s Book of Life (Rev 3:5), while the names of nonbelievers are not (Rev 13:8; 17:8). So then, this particular record determines whether a person enters the New Heaven and Earth or is thrown into the Lake of Fire.

But what about the other “books” mentioned in Rev 20:12? From what John says about these books recording the “works” of each person (Rev 20:12-13), it appears that these other records determine the degree or severity of judgment (or torment) that each nonbeliever will receive, demonstrating God’s perfect justice. Though all nonbelievers deserve eternal torment, not all deserve such torment to the same degree.

From this it seems apparent that though all nonbelievers will suffer unbearable, conscious torment in separation from God forever, some will suffer more intensively than others. From this we conclude that though all nonbelievers will suffer unbearable, conscious torment forever, some will suffer more intensively than others.

Key Takeaways

A righteous reign of Christ is not enough to persuade nonbelievers to follow him.

Though Christ will govern the world with perfect care and justice for a thousand years under ideal conditions, a vast number of people will tolerate his reign and refuse to believe on him as God and Savior. They will quickly coalesce around Satan when he returns, demonstrating the pervasive extent and power of our own sinful nature.

When someone says, “I would follow Christ if only God would give me a better life,” or, “I refuse to follow Christ because the circumstances in my life have been so terrible,” we know it’s not true. We refuse to follow Christ whether we have pleasant circumstances or not, whether Satan deceives us or not. We refuse to follow Christ because of our own stubborn, sinful nature.

God will judge unrighteous people with perfect justice.

First, God will judge every ungodly person who’s resisted him and refused his salvation through Christ. No one will escape his judgment, no matter how significant they may have been in this world.

Second, God will judge every ungodly person appropriately. He will not judge with a single stroke or with a “one size fits all” approach. He will judge each one according to his or her own thoughts, feelings, and behavior towards God and man. Those who committed more numerous and more heinous sins will receive a greater punishment, and each will receive a punishment that’s precisely right for them.

Death itself will be removed as a threat forever.

In these final chapters of Revelation, we’ve learned about the coming removal of the antichrist, the false prophet, of Satan, and of all ungodly people. Then we also learn about the removal of death itself, that ominous reality that Paul calls our “last enemy” (1 Cor 15:26). Reading about these future events encourages us that though death technically looms in our lives today since we all face the prospect of death one way or another, even death itself will be removed when God completes his plan of redemption. When God sends death into the Lake of Fire, the lights will go out completely for all that’s evil.