Revelation 20:10 Kommentar

This chapter is thought by some to be the darkest part of all this prophecy: it is very probable that the things contained in it are not yet accomplished; and therefore it is the wiser way to content ourselves with general observations, rather than to be positive and particular in our explications of it. Here we have an account, I. Of the binding of Satan for a thousand years (Rev 20:1-3). II. The reign of the saints with Christ for the same time (Rev 20:4-6). III. Of the loosing of Satan, and the conflict of the church with Gog and Magog (Rev 20:7-10). IV. Of the day of judgment (Rev 20:11, etc.).

INTRODUCTION TO REVELATION 20 This chapter contains the binding of Satan, the saints' thousand years' reign with Christ, the loosing of Satan again, the destruction of him, and the Gog and Magog army, and the last judgment: the angel that is to bind Satan is described by his descent from heaven; by his having the key of the bottomless pit, and a great chain in his hand; and by the use he made of them, laying hold on Satan, binding him, casting him into the bottomless pit, and then shutting it up, and setting a seal on him; by all which he will be prevented from deceiving the nations for the space of a thousand years, Rev 20:1. After this thrones are seen, with persons on them, to whom judgment is given; who are said to be such as had been martyrs for Jesus, and had not worshipped the beast, or professed his religion; whose happiness is represented by living and reigning with Christ a thousand years, when others will not; the second death will have no power on them; they will be the priests of God, and Christ, and reign with him during the said term, having a part in the first resurrection, Rev 20:4. At the expiration of which term Satan will be loosed, and go out of prison, deceive the nations, and gather Gog and Magog to battle; who, being exceeding numerous, will cover the breadth of the earth, encompass the camp and city of the saints, when fire will come down from heaven and destroy them, and Satan will be cast into the lake of fire, where the beast and false prophet are, and be tormented for ever and ever, Rev 20:7. And next an account is given of the general Judgment; and the judge is described by the throne he sat on, a white cloud, and by his majesty, which is such, that the heavens and the earth flee from before him, Rev 20:11. And next the persons judged are described by their common state, the dead; by their age or condition, great and small, and by their position, standing before God; and then an account of the procedure, or rule of judgment; the books are opened, and the execution of judgment according to what is found in the books, Rev 20:12 in order to which the sea, death, and the grave, give up the dead in them, and the two last are cast into the lake, and with them those who are not in the book of life, Rev 20:13.

And the devil that deceived them,.... Both before death, in the present life, by tempting and drawing them into immorality and profaneness, or idolatry, superstition, and will worship, or persecution of the saints; and after their resurrection, by instigating them to make this foolish attempt upon the saints of the most High: was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone; the same with the everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels; this will be his full torment, in which he is not as yet; and this will not be until the judgment is finished hereafter described; though it is here mentioned to issue the account of Satan at once, and to show what will be his final state and condition: where the beast and false prophet are; Rev 19:20 who for so many years have been companions in wickedness together; the beast being the first beast that received his power, seat, and authority from the dragon, or devil; the false prophet being the second beast, or antichrist in his ecclesiastical capacity, as the beast is antichrist in his civil power, whose coming is after the working of Satan, with signs and lying wonders: and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever; that is, not only the devil, but the beast and false prophet, for the word is in the plural number: and this will be the case of all wicked men, of all whose minds are enmity to God and Christ, and to his people; and is a proof of the eternity of hell torments.

If sorrow, and mourning, and sighing, and death itself, assail us from the afflictions both of soul and body, how shall they be removed, except by the cessation of their causes, that is to say, the afflictions of flesh and soul? where will you find adversities in the presence of God? where, incursions of an enemy in the bosom of Christ? where, attacks of the devil in the face of the Holy Spirit?-now that the devil himself and his angels are "cast into the lake of fire." Where now is necessity, and what they call fortune or fate? What plague awaits the redeemed from death, after their eternal pardon? What wrath is there for the reconciled, after grace? What weakness, after their renewed strength? What risk and danger, after their salvation? That the raiment and shoes of the children of Israel remained unworn and fresh for the space of forty years; that in their very persons the exact point of convenience and propriety checked the rank growth of their nails and hair, so that any excess herein might not be attributed to indecency; that the fires of Babylon injured not either the mitres or the trousers of the three brethren, however foreign such dress might be to the Jews; that Jonah was swallowed by the monster of the deep, in whose belly whole ships were devoured, and after three days was vomited out again safe and sound; that Enoch and Elias, who even now, without experiencing a resurrection (because they have not even encountered death), are learning to the full what it is for the flesh to be exempted from all humiliation, and all loss, and all injury, and all disgrace-translated as they have been from this world, and from this very cause already candidates for everlasting life; -to what faith do these notable facts bear witness, if not to that which ought to inspire in us the belief that they are proofs and documents of our own future integrity and perfect resurrection? For, to borrow the apostle's phrase, these were "figures of ourselves; " and they are written that we may believe both that the Lord is more powerful than all natural laws about the body, and that He shows Himself the preserver of the flesh the more emphatically, in that He has preserved for it its very clothes and shoes.

"And they went up upon the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city; and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil who seduced them was cast into the take of fire and brimstone, where both the beast and the false prophet shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever."]This belongs to the last judgment. And after a little time the earth was made holy, as being at least that wherein lately had reposed the bodies of the virgins, when they shall enter upon an eternal kingdom with an immortal King, as they who are not only virgins in body, but, moreover, with equal inviolability have protected themselves, both in tongue and thought, from wickedness; and these, it shows, shall dwell in rejoicing for ever with the Lamb.

John goes on to state succinctly the full punishment that is to be meted out in the last judgment to the hostile city and its prince, the devil.… Why has the church been so intolerant with those who defend the view that, however greatly and however long the devil is to be punished, he can be promised ultimately that all will be purged or pardoned? Certainly it is not because so many of the church's saints and biblical scholars have begrudged the devil and his angels a final cleansing and the beatitude of the kingdom of heaven. Nor is it because of any lack of feeling for so many and such high angels that must suffer such great and enduring pain. This is not a matter of feeling but of fact. The fact is that there is no way of waiving or weakening the words that the Lord has told us that he will pronounce in the last judgment: "Depart from me, accursed ones, into the everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels." In this way he showed plainly that it is an eternal fire in which the devil and his angels are to burn. Then we have the words of the Apocalypse: "and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever." In the one text we have "everlasting," in the other, "forever and ever." These are words that have a single meaning in the divine Scripture, namely, of unending duration.

“And the devil and his people went up into the height of the earth,” that is, in the presumption of their arrogance, and “they surrounded the camp of the saints and the city of the beloved,” that is, the church. This refers to what was earlier said about those assembled at Armageddon. They cannot be gathered into one city from the four corners of the earth. Rather, in every corner [of the earth] each people will be gathered together for opposition to the holy city, that is, for persecution of the church. “And fire shall descend out of heaven from God,” that is, out of the church, “and consume them.” In this passage the fire may be interpreted in two ways. Either they will believe in Christ through the fire of the Holy Spirit, and they will be spiritually consumed by the church, that is, incorporated into the church, or they will be consumed by the fire of their own sins and will perish.

And the Devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the False Prophet are, and they shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. Let the reader know that the present Revelation has handed down to us three things in the foregoing: first, the original evil Dragon shown in heaven; second, a beast rising from the sea, whom we understood to be second in command to Satan, but superior to the other demons; and third, the Antichrist, whom he also calls the False Prophet. But concerning the second, the Devil, and the Antichrist it was said a little above (Rev. 19:20) that the two were thrown into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. Now concerning Satan, or rather the Devil, whom in the preceding passages he named the Dragon, he says that they shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. Therefore, the one who met the vision perceived very precisely that the thousand years, during which the Devil was bound and cast into the abyss and then released, we understood to be the Lord's dominion and his reign on earth, in which the Devil's activity was suspended for a short time. For now he has shown that their punishment and that of those deceived by him is not for a thousand years, and that, far from being a release from evil, it is for ever and ever.

“And they ascended upon the height of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints.” Lifted up by their arrogance, the impious ascended into the heights, but their earthly arrogance holds them back. They are wise in nothing heavenly, nor do they fear the power of celestial greatness. “They surrounded the camp of the saints.” [This means that] they wished to exist in common with the saints, but of them the prophecy is fulfilled that says, “They shall return at evening and be hungry as a dog and go around about the city.” In the present passage he calls the city “beloved,” saying, “they shall surround the camp of the saints and the beloved city.”

Just as fierce animals come out of their caves, so, it says, those led by the devil and the demons with him will come from their various locations and spread themselves out over the earth to ravage the camp of the saints, clearly meaning the church, which is established throughout the four corners of the world. But they do not know that it is not only a single angel but many angels who encamp round about them who fear God, as the psalm says. They will come to subdue the new Jerusalem, the beloved city, from which the divine law has gone into all the world through the apostles. Then, they say, the antichrist will seat himself in the temple of God. This refers either to the ancient temple of God among the Jews that was destroyed because of their audacity against Christ and which those Jews who hate God still expect to be rebuilt by him, or it refers to the true temple of God, namely, the catholic church. The antichrist will usurp for himself what does not belong to him and “proclaim himself to be God,” as the apostle says. Not long afterward, it says, fire comes down from heaven. This will be either a physical fire such as that which burned the two groups of fifty at the time of Elijah, or the passage refers to the glorious coming of Christ, who will slay them “by the breath of his mouth” and consume the aforementioned nations and their leader, the devil. Christ will hand them, along with the antichrist and the false prophet, over to the lake of fire, where they will be tormented forever and ever. Christ the Savior has taught us to pray that we enter not into temptation, and so, recognizing our weakness, let us do that earnestly, that we be saved from the trials of that which is prophesied.

And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, etc. That is, the devil will be cast into the eternal fire at the final judgment, where all whom he has led will also go, that is, the majority of the impious city. For the beast should be understood according to the context: sometimes it means the devil, sometimes the Antichrist, sometimes the very impious city. The name of the fire descending from heaven can also signify the sudden destruction of the wicked when the Lord comes and will slay the Antichrist with the breath of His mouth (2 Thess. 2). He explains more fully how, when Christ judges, the devil with his followers is cast into the fire.

An angel binds Satan a thousand years, and shuts him up in the bottomless pit, Rev 20:1-3. They who were beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, who have part in the first resurrection, and shall reign with Christ a thousand years, Rev 20:4-6. When the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, shall go forth and deceive the nations, and shall gather Gog and Magog from the four corners of the earth, Rev 20:7, Rev 20:8. These shall besiege the holy city; but fire shall come down from heaven and consume them, and they and the devil be cast into a lake of fire, Rev 20:9, Rev 20:10. The great white throne, and the dead, small and great, standing before God, and all judged according to their works, Rev 20:11, Rev 20:12. The sea, death, and hades, give up their dead, and are destroyed; and all not found in the book of life are cast into the lake of fire, Rev 20:13-15.

And the devil - was cast onto the lake - Before Satan was bound, that is, his power was curtailed and restrained; now, he is cast into the lake of fire, his power being totally taken away.

SATAN BOUND, AND THE FIRST-RISEN SAINTS REIGN WITH CHRIST, A THOUSAND YEARS; SATAN LOOSED, GATHERS THE NATIONS, GOG AND MAGOG, ROUND THE CAMP OF THE SAINTS, AND IS FINALLY CONSIGNED TO THE LAKE OF FIRE; THE GENERAL RESURRECTION AND LAST JUDGMENT. (Rev 20:1-15) The destruction of his representatives, the beast and the false prophet, to whom he had given his power, throne, and authority, is followed by the binding of Satan himself for a thousand years. the key of the bottomless pit--now transferred from Satan's hands, who had heretofore been permitted by God to use it in letting loose plagues on the earth; he is now to be made to feel himself the torment which he had inflicted on men, but his full torment is not until he is cast into "the lake of fire" (Rev 20:10).

that deceived--Greek, "that deceiveth." lake of fire--his final doom: as "the bottomless pit" (Rev 20:1) was his temporary prison. where--so Coptic. But A, B, Vulgate, and Syriac read, "where also." the beast and the false prophet are-- (Rev 19:20). day and night--figurative for without intermission (Rev 22:5), such as now is caused by night interposing between day and day. The same phrase is used of the external state of the blessed (Rev 4:8). As the bliss of these is eternal, so the woe of Satan and the lost must be. As the beast and the false prophet led the former conspiracy against Christ and His people, so Satan in person heads the last conspiracy. Satan shall not be permitted to enter this Paradise regained, to show the perfect security of believers, unlike the first Adam whom Satan succeeded in robbing of Paradise; and shall, like Pharaoh at the Rod Sea, receive in this last attempt his final doom. for ever and ever--Greek, "to the ages of the ages."