The Books Were Opened

Rev. 20:1-15

Welcome! If you have been with us these past several months, you know that we have been making our way through the book of Revelation. At one point John had presented an outline of the book and indicated the final parts of the book with smiley faces; well, we are now up to the smiley faces!

But with the smiley faces, we are also in the part of the book that creates the greatest number of questions with regards to interpretation. I believe my co-pastors and the others who teach here on Sundays probably breathed a sigh of relief when they saw that they would not have to deal with the questions that inevitably arise with today’s passage.

But you know, I actually think it is sad that this passage, Revelations chapter 20, has such negative associations with it. After all, we are in the smiley faces part Revelation! What we will read today is glorious, awe-inspiring, celebration-worthy, fantastic stuff! And so my approach today will be to treat this passage exactly like we have treated every other passage in Revelation; we are going to take it face value, see what it says, look at its connections to other passages, and contemplate on what it really means for us. Then at the end, I will say a few brief things about the interpretation issues and what the interpretative questions are. But I want the focus of our time to be simply on what this wonderful passage says.

For context, I want to back up to last week’s passage and read that first. From Revelation 19, starting at verse 11,

I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice He judges and wages war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on His head are many crowns. He has a name written on Him that no one knows but He Himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and His name is the Word of God.  – Rev. 19:11-13

The armies of heaven were following Him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Coming out of His mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.” He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On His robe and on His thigh He has this name written: king of kings and lord of lords. – Rev. 19:14-16

And I saw an angel standing in the sun, who cried in a loud voice to all the birds flying in midair, “Come, gather together for the great supper of God, so that you may eat the flesh of kings, generals, and the mighty, of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, great and small.” – Rev. 19:17-18

Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to wage war against the rider on the horse and his army. But the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who had performed the signs on its behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. – Rev. 19:19-20a

The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. The rest were killed with the sword coming out of the mouth of the rider on the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh. – Rev. 19:20b-21

And so at last we see the coming of Jesus. He has come this time not like the first time. The first time He came as a helpless human baby, with angels proclaiming peace. But this time He comes as an adult, as a judge and ready for war. His eyes are like blazing fire, symbolism also used in the beginning of Revelation, symbolic of purifying, searching out everywhere and destroying the unholy. On His head are many crowns, all the crowns of the earth. He is taking over as supreme, sole leader on earth. Independent nations will be no more. From His mouth comes a sharp sword, symbolism again used earlier in Revelation, symbolic of being both judge and executioner. And He comes not alone but with overwhelming, awesome heavenly armies, and His will is carried out.

The beast gathers together his great armies of the world for the world’s greatest battle. Notice the next word: “But.” I take this to mean that He was stopped before they could even begin. This is not a two-sided war. I’m not sure it’s even a war at all. The beast and false prophet are captured, thrown into the lake of fire, and their armies will killed not by the armies of Christ, but seemingly by Christ alone, by the sword coming from His mouth.

I like how commentator John Philips writes vividly of this: "Then suddenly it will be all over. In fact, there will be no war at all in the sense that we think of war, there will be just a word spoken from Him who sits astride the great white horse. Once He spoke a word to a fig tree and it withered away, once He spoke a word to howling winds and heaving waves and the storm cloud vanished and the waves fell still. Once He spoke to a legion of demons bursting at the seams of a poor man's soul and instantly they fled. And now He speaks a word and the war is over, the blasphemous loud-mouthed beast is stricken where he stands. The false prophet, the miracle working windbag from the pit is punctured and still. The pair of them are bundled up and hurled headlong into the everlasting flames. Another word and the panic-stricken armies reel and stagger and fall down dead, field marshals and generals, admirals and air commanders, soldiers and sailors, rank and file, one and all they fall and the vultures descend and cover the scene."

John mentioned last week that the iron scepter is described in Psalm 2; in fact, this entire psalm seems to be tied to the events here in Revelation:

Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against His anointed, saying, “Let us break their chains and throw off their shackles.” – Psalm 2:1-3

The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them. He rebukes them in His anger and terrifies them in His wrath, saying, “I have installed My King on Zion, My holy mountain.” – Psalm 2:4-6

I will proclaim the Lord’s decree: He said to me, “You are My Son; today I have become Your Father. Ask Me, and I will make the nations Your inheritance, the ends of the earth Your possession. You will break them with a rod of iron; You will dash them to pieces like pottery.” – Psalm 2:7-9

Therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and celebrate His rule with trembling. Kiss His Son, or He will be angry and your way will lead to your destruction, for His wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in Him. – Psalm 2:10-12

As a reminder, as we have reminded you through this entire series, it is important to understand that one can go too far with literalism understanding Revelation. Revelation is a series of images, of scenes, most with fantastical scenes, impossible scenes. Christ is not really a lamb. A sword does not really come out of His mouth. And so on. The challenge is to not go too far the other way. This passage is describing a real overthrow of Satan, a real dismantling of his kingdom, a real destroying of his government that was based on worship of him in place of worshiping God. Revelations 19 and Psalm 2 describe an absolute and total end to this entire world system. This is really going to happen!

Now people out on the street, at your workplaces, in school with you, even some of your family members, if they are not believers, may laugh at you if you tell them that you think this will really happen. They might tell you that a little religion is a good thing, but not to go overboard. They might tell you that science will usher in a better age or that the world is continually improving. They might tell you that they are winning, that fewer and fewer people believe, that the “God of the gaps” is running out of places to hide.  But I am reminded of 2 Peter 3:

Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. – 2 Peter 3:3-7

Christ will come. And He will overthrow the kingdoms of this earth. He will be KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS. And whether the birds gorging on flesh is figurative or literal, the Day of the Lord will be terrible, unimaginable, for those opposed to Him. And so this brings us to today’s passage, Revelation 20:

And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain. He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time. – Rev. 20:1-3

In Revelation 19 it was the antichrist and false prophet who were thrown into the lake of fire; the conspiring leaders are also now gone; previously Babylon was destroyed as well. The one who remains is Satan himself, here called both the dragon and the ancient serpent. This is the one who tempted Adam and Eve and thereby led to the fall of man, to the curse on man and on the earth. Because of this Jesus came; because of this, Jesus died, seemingly giving Satan the victory. But Jesus, without sin, dying for the sins of man, could not stay dead; death had no hold on Him. He rose from the dead, thwarting Satan’s plans or hopes of eliminating Him. In a very real way, at the resurrection Satan really lost. But now he is being put away, locked up, removed from causing any further havoc on earth (at least for 1000 years).

The Abyss is where he goes; this does not seem to be the same place as the lake of fire. Peter calls this place in 2 Peter 2:4 the pit of darkness reserved for judgment. Demons begged Jesus not to go there; recall that when Jesus restored the demon-possessed man in the Gerasenes, the demons called themselves Legion and begged Jesus not to order them to go into the Abyss. Instead, he let them go into a group of pigs (Luke 8).

In Greek this word is Abussos, and it means, literally, bottomless. What is it like to be thrown into a bottomless pit? Based on the demon’s pleas in Luke 8, it must be pretty terrifying. I don’t know if you have ever had “falling” dreams, but I have. And it is pretty terrifying. It wakes you up in a moment. I cannot imagine what feeling like that over time must be like. Now I realize there are people out there that like to go sky-diving. I am not one of those people. But I think sky-diving is different, in that you pretty soon reach an equilibrium – you feel wind resistance, and I don’t think this is the same feeling as falling. In any case, this is what happens to Satan. He is bound, thrown into the bottomless pit, and the pit is locked and sealed. He is not going anywhere until he is let out.

I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years.  (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.)  - Rev. 20:4-5a

This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years. – Rev. 20:5b-6

This 1000-year period is one in which Satan is not present; recall that when Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, Satan made it clear that the world belonged to him; he offered the world to Jesus in exchange for Jesus worshiping him. Jesus refused, and instead took the harder path, the one of sacrificing His own life for us in accordance with God the Father’s will. But the result of this harder path is that He now has what Satan had promised – the world is now His.

Taking this passage at face value, the people who reign with Christ are those who were martyred, presumably those who previously asked in Revelation, “How long, Lord?” and were told, “A little longer.” And they were brought back to life, and for 1000 years, they reign with Him.

There is so little detail here about what this period will be like. We would assume it would be quite different than the history of our fallen world. After all, Christ is here, reigning, and other believers are reigning with Him. But let’s keep reading, keep going.

When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth—Gog and Magog—and to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore. They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God’s people, the city He loves. – Rev. 20:7-9a

This is amazing to me. Yes, I understand Satan is released. But how could anyone be deceived again? We need to understand that all we can do is conjecture here. We are looking at the far future. We know so little about the 1000 year period. Are people during this period with their eternal bodies? Do they have children? Are there unsaved people left or born during this time?

The challenge is that we have descriptions of our ultimate future, a future that is fantastic, with eternal bodies, hearts that no longer want to sin, with incredibly joy – we will see this further on in Revelation and we see this again and again in other passages – but this 1000-year period isn’t quite there yet. And so I think people make mistakes, regardless of how they fit this period in with the rest of Scripture, when they jump to conclusions. The conclusions just aren’t here in Revelation. We have only the briefest outline.

We do know only what this passage says. Satan is released, deceives the multitudes again, and we have another war, people coming from everywhere and meeting together in Israel, outside Jerusalem. John’s readers of Revelation certainly would have understand that “the city He loves” could only refer to Jerusalem. We see Jesus’ heart towards Jerusalem in the gospels, in passages like these:

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.” – Luke 13:34

As He approached Jerusalem and saw the city, He wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.” – Luke 19:41-44

But let’s keep going. Although Jerusalem in multiple occasions did experience terrible things, for example in AD 70, this would not be one of those times:

But fire came down from heaven and devoured them. And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever. – Rev. 20:9b-10

Fire from heaven: it’s almost anticlimactic, isn’t it? Actually, it’s terribly ironic. It might just be the most ironic thing in the entire Bible! Why do I say this? Well, let’s look back at Rev. 13:

Then I saw a second beast, coming out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon. It exercised all the authority of the first beast on its behalf, and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed. And it performed great signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to the earth in full view of the people. Because of the signs it was given power to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceived the inhabitants of the earth. It ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. – Rev. 13:11-14

All through Revelation, we see Satan and his puppets setting up imitations of Christ. Satan is supremely jealous of Christ. Here in Revelation 13, you can see this, for example, by the first beast whose fatal wound is “miraculously” healed. What is this imitating? Christ on the cross, of course. And then, to fool even more people, this second beast imitated various signs that God had done, including, most impressively, causing fire to come down from heaven! Well, where have we seen this before?

Back up to Elijah and the prophets of Baal, I Kings 18. Remember the story? Elijah challenged the 450 prophets of Baal to see who could bring down fire from heaven to light an altar. Recall that Elijah let them go first; they chanted and shouted all morning, but nothing happened. Elijah taunted them, saying, “Shout louder! Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.”  And so they did so, all day long, even cutting each other up, as it was their way, but nothing happened. Then Elijah made his altar, poured water over it, made a simple but elegant prayer, and fire from heaven came down and consumed not only the offering, but the wood, the water, the stones, and even the soil. I believe Satan never forgot that “outrageous” defeat, and, always trying to deceive by imitating God, he made his second beast (with horns like a lamb – why do you think that was?) able (at least in some fashion) to actually call down fire.

And so, here, we have Satan gathering these immense armies, perhaps the greatest gathering of armies in the history of the world, converged upon lowly Jerusalem, and “snap,” fire from heaven, the real deal, a massive blast that we cannot even imagine, just vaporized those immense armies. Is it not fitting? Is it not appropriate? Is it not God’s signature sense of humor? (You see this sense of humor in how God made His snake swallow up the other serpents in Pharaohs house and in the other plagues which ridiculed the various false Egyptian gods, and in many other places in Scripture.) I think we need to take Satan seriously – we are warned that he is like a lion, seeking ones to devour – but I think for God it is another matter entirely. To God, I think Satan is ultimately only fit to be ridiculed. And I cannot imagine a greater degree of ridicule than this. Poof: armies all gone, Satan bound, once again, and this time, not put into the abyss, but into the lake of fire, from which there is no escape, ever. 

By the way, I believe this is prophesied or at least foreshadowed in Ezekiel 38, which talks about the armies of Gog and Magog. The entire chapter is relevant, but I am going to read you only the last part:

‘This is what will happen in that day: When Gog attacks the land of Israel, My hot anger will be aroused, declares the Sovereign Lord. In My zeal and fiery wrath I declare that at that time there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. The fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the beasts of the field, every creature that moves along the ground, and all the people on the face of the earth will tremble at My presence. The mountains will be overturned, the cliffs will crumble and every wall will fall to the ground. I will summon a sword against Gog on all My mountains, declares the Sovereign Lord. Every man’s sword will be against his brother. I will execute judgment on him with plague and bloodshed; I will pour down torrents of rain, hailstones and burning sulfur on him and on his troops and on the many nations with him. And so I will show My greatness and My holiness, and I will make Myself known in the sight of many nations. Then they will know that I am the Lord.’ – Ezek. 38:18-23

But let’s continue:

Then I saw a great white throne and Him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from His presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. – Rev. 20:11-12a

The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire. – Rev. 20:12b-15

I want to quote from John MacArthur here, as it he puts it so forcefully:

“This is man's last day in God's court. This Day of Judgment, this tribunal, this court, this trial will not be like the familiar trials held on earth. For those on trial this day will experience a very different kind of court. There will be no debate about guilt or innocence. There will be a prosecutor but no defender, there will be an accuser but no advocate. There will be an indictment but no case for the charged. There will be a swift presentation of the convicting evidence but no rebuttal, a testimony with no cross examination. There will be an utterly unsympathetic judge and no jury. There will be a sentence but no appeal, a punishment with no parole in a jail with no escape.”

“The petty courts of earth fall far short of this one. Somewhere unknown to us between earth and heaven, between the world as we know it now and the new heaven and the new earth, this judgment will take place. And it is the last courtroom that will ever convene throughout all eternity. After this no one will ever be tried again and God will never again act as a judge. The Scripture before us describes the event and its significance. It is where all unredeemed human beings will eventually arrive. All who have died in their sins apart from the knowledge of God will be there from all of human history.”

“And for all through the centuries, since man sinned and fell in the Garden, Satan the liar above all liars has endeavored to deceive man about the reality of this coming event. He has done his best to convince men that there will be no final tribunal, there will be no final judgment. He has deceived sinners into believing that they can live any way they like and there will be no day of accounting, there will be no future punishment, no time of sentencing, no moment when they stand before the judge of all the earth.”

As I thought about this passage, it gave me I think a new insight into Satan’s schemes. I have often wondered why he persisted, seemingly knowing that he would lose. After all, he could read the Bible too, right? But then it struck me – misery loves company. He knows his own doom, but he wants to drag as many of us humans as he can with him into that lake of fire. He hates us, and he hates God for making us lower than him and yet insisting that he (and the other angels) serve us. He knows that God loves us, and he is jealous. And he knows that it causes God great pain to lose any of us, and so, perhaps for that reason alone, he is determined to take as many of us from Him as he can. I don’t know that this is right – I have no scripture to justify it specifically, but it at least offers me a reasonable explanation for Satan’s otherwise seemingly inexplicable behavior.

In any case, if the previous passage was the most ironic of all of Scripture, then perhaps this is the most serious, the most sobering, and the most tragic.

We will be judged for what we have done. We have all done dreadful things. None of us are exempt. But there is one thing, and only one thing, that we could have done while alive, that if we had done this thing, would trump or negate every other thing, every other dreadful, terrible thing, that we possibly could ever do. That one thing that negates the others is to put our faith and trust in Christ to save us, to believe in Him, really believe. Not just to believe that He exists, but to enter into relationship with Him, through prayer, to agree with Him that we have sinned dreadfully, but that we accept His gift of eternal life through faith in Him. That one thing, and only that one thing, would cause our names to be written in the Book of Life.

In this great, terrible scene, there is only this throne room. The whole universe is gone, uncreated. It is the most solemn moment in history. At some point, you and I will be there, before this throne, before the Judge. And in the Book of Life, pages will be turned, and it will be seen whether your name and my name are in that book. And I pray that your name will be found there, and the names of your loved ones, and my loved ones. I would hope that everyone’s name would be found there – but I fear this will not be the case. Salvation is a gift, and like all gifts, it must be accepted. It must be received. If it could be forced on people it would no longer be a gift.  To reject the gift is to reject the Giver, and to reject the Giver is to reject the Holy Spirit, even perhaps to blaspheme Him, and the Holy Spirit must be in us if we are to be changed. And we must agree to be changed, or we are forever unfit for what we will see in the final chapters of Revelation, for eternity with Christ, with God. The unholy cannot be in the presence of the Holy.

Now I promised a brief outline of common ideas about how the millennium fits into various people’s understandings of Scripture as a whole, and so let me do that now. The reason there is any controversy at all is that people want to know how to link together the passage we have read today with the following:

For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words. – I Thess. 4:16-18

This event is commonly called the Rapture.

To explain the common views I am going to quote from John Hopler, director of Great Commission Churches, from a series of books produced for the Great Commission Leadership Institute, or GCLI.

“A. Premillennial: This view holds to the existence of a literal 1000-year period when Christ will reign in righteousness over the whole world. Before the millennium, Christ will return and rapture His Church. This view is held by the vast majority of the evangelical world.”

“B. Amillennial: This view denies a literal millennium, but instead sees the promises of Revelation 20:4-6 being fulfilled today in a spiritual way, either in Heaven or in the Church, as the Church submits to Christ day by day. This view sees good and evil growing together until the Second Coming of Christ, at which time there will be the resurrection (rapture), the final judgment, and the end of all things. This view is held by Catholics.”

“C. Postmillennial: This view holds that Revelation 20:4-6 is being fulfilled today through the preaching of the gospel and the ever-increasing expansion of the Kingdom of God. According to this view, the world will eventually be christianized and that Christ will return after a long period of righteousness and peace. This view is commonly found among Presbyterians and those from a

Reformed theological tradition.”

These are only the briefest summaries of these positions. My only advice to you is to encourage you that it is not necessary to “figure it all out.” The truth is that we don’t know how it all fits together. There are additional questions about how the tribulation period integrates with the rapture verse making it all even more complicated. I think people on all sides sometimes defend their positions too vehemently, bringing pride into it. The bottom line is that these things will happen. And most importantly, we all will be there before the great white throne when the books are opened. And all that will matter is whether our names are written in the book of life.