The Devil's Dungeon

Doug Batchelor: You probably know sometimes notorious criminals will receive a prison sentence that's far longer than the average human lifespan. Some stretch to more than 1,000 years, but the longest prison sentence on record was handed to Chamoy Thipyaso, a woman in Thailand who defrauded more than 16,000 of her countrymen out of hundreds of millions of dollars back in the 1980s. Her sentence was more than 140,000 years. Remarkably, after an appeal to challenge the legality of the sentence, her epic prison term was reduced to 20 years, and she ended up only serving about 8 years.

The Bible book of Revelation explains that following the Second Coming of Jesus, the most notorious criminal of all time, the devil, will be handed a sentence of 1,000 years, after which, he's briefly paroled. But where is this prison, and why would God briefly let him out, and what's happening on Earth during this 1,000 years when Satan is bound? Join me now as we take a closer look at this fascinating Bible prophesy topic known as the millennium.

Tonight's subject is one of my favorites, and it's based on a passage you find in Revelation chapter 20. We're calling it the devil's dungeon. I think it was George Washington Carver who was famous because he really helped an economic resurrection in the South following the Civil War. The sharecroppers, they kept farming cotton, cotton, cotton, and it sapped the ground from its nutrients, and Carver said you got to let the land lay fallow. You got to let it recover and so that it can generate more nitrogen, and he had them introduce crops like sweet potatoes and peanuts, and that really was an economic salvation for them when they finally realized you got to rest the land, you can't keep farming the same thing all the time.

The Lord told the children of Israel when they came out of Egypt, Moses said, Exodus 23: "Six years you will sow your land and gather its produce, but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat." They were to rest the land. They used to have a farming Sabbath every seventh year, don't farm.

Well, it's kind of hard sometimes to ask farmers not to farm because it represents and economic loss, and evidently, the children of Israel often ignored this law. And so you find that from the time of King David up until the time of the Babylonian captivity, they were farming the land year after year after year, were not letting it keep the Sabbath. And so when God finally brought judgment on them 490 years after David, "then they burned the house of God and broke down the wall of Jerusalem, and burned all of its palaces with fire--" notice this very carefully--"and those who escaped from the sword he carried off to Babylon until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths. As long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years."

So if you've got 490 years, how many annual Sabbaths would you have? How many 7-year Sabbaths would you have in 490 years? Seventy. So for every year that they neglected to let the land rest, God said, "You're going to spend a year in captivity. Jerusalem and the people--Jerusalem is going to be uninhabited. The land is going to rest." It's very interesting. You can read about this Nehemiah 1:3, "The wall of Jerusalem is broken down. The gates are burned with fire." So God sort of compelled the land to rest.

You know, the Bible tells us that for about 6,000 years now, Jesus has been sowing the gospel seed. Revelation tells us that he's coming with a sickle to harvest the earth. Several parables, Jesus talks about farming and harvesting, and during that time after we are caught up to meet the Lord, the Lord is going to keep--the land is going to keep, or the earth, a 1,000-year Sabbath when it is desolate. Sometimes it's referred to as the millennium.

First question, what events mark the beginning of this 1,000-year period, what we call the millennium? It begins with the coming of the Lord. It tells us "for the LORD Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, and the dead in Christ will rise first. We shall not all sleep, but we will all be changed," and you read on here 1 Corinthians 15:52, "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound, and the dead shall be raised."

Now, those who are dead, they're raised, they're given glorified bodies. Those of us who are alive, we get new bodies. You read in Philippians 3:21, "Who will transform our lowly body that it might be conformed to His glorious body." This verse wasn't near as important to me when I was, like, 19 years old as it is now. The older you get, the better this verse looks, amen? "And then this lawless one will happen so the wicked--then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will destroy with the brightness of His coming." And so you've got the righteous who are alive. They're transformed. The righteous dead are resurrected. The wicked who are dead stay dead. The wicked who are alive are destroyed, and we are caught up to meet the Lord in the air.

What is the condition of the earth during the 1,000 years? Now, this is where a lot of people are surprised. Look at this: "I beheld the earth and indeed it was without form, and void, and the heavens, they had no light." If I stop right there, you'll think he's describing before creation. Oh, keep reading, he's not. It says, "I beheld the mountains and indeed they trembled. I beheld and, indeed, there was no man, and all the birds of heaven had fled, and the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all its cities were broken down."

There were people there, but they're not there anymore. The birds have all fled. "And the cities are broken down--" what caused all this devastation? It says the presence of the Lord and by His fierce anger. Look at this verse in Jeremiah 25:33, "And at that day the slain of the Lord shall be from one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth. They are not be lamented, or gathered, or buried," why? There's no one alive to gather, lament, or bury them.

See, what happens is when Jesus comes back, what direction do we go? We go up. What happens to the wicked? They're destroyed by the brightness of his coming. This earth is going to get a 1,000-year Sabbath. We are not living and reigning here on the earth over the wicked. I don't know about you, but I have no desire to reign over sinners. We are living and reigning with Christ and his ambassadors. He says, "I've gone to prepare a place for you." We go up when he comes. "And an angel laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years." So we see that Satan is captured, he's bound.

Now, where is he bound? It tells us that the devil is cast into this--what is it? Bottomless pit, that word there, "bottomless pit" has confused a lot of people, and folks wonder, "Is it a black hole out in the universe somewhere, and is it a wormhole, and what is this bottomless pit?" Well, the word in Greek is abussos, and the word simply means abyss. It means a place where the devil has no one to inhabit. It is the same word that is used in the Greek Septuagint that is for "when the earth is without form and void." It describes our world in a state of chaos. The earth is a dark chaotic mess. Satan is bound on the void, this abussos.

Where will the saints be during the 1,000 years and what are they doing? All right, Jesus said, "I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am--" He's on-- up in heaven with the Father in the mansions He's prepared-- "you may be also." So as the dead in Christ rise, we're caught up, we meet him in the air, we go with him to that place. We've got glorified bodies now.

What are we doing? "I saw thrones, and they that sat upon them, and judgment was given to them, and they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years." So what are we doing during the 1,000 years? Well, someone said there's going to be three big surprises in heaven. I think I mentioned this. One surprise is that you're there. The other surprise is that you're going to see people there that you never dreamed would be there, and the third surprise is that there are going to be people missing that you thought would be leading the parade in heaven.

Now, suppose you get to heaven and you got your uncle Elmer, and he seemed like such a godly man, deacon in the church, smiled all the time, carried his Bible under his arm, and you thought that, "Wow, he's going to be in heaven." You're going to get to heaven, say, "Where's Uncle Elmer?" And the angel's going to put his eyes down, say, "Well, you know, I got some sad news. He's not here." "What?" "Come with me." The Bible says there's books. I don't know if God is going to have old-fashioned books or a video or how He's going to show us, but He'll show us everything's recorded, and the angel's going to play back.

You realize the Bible says everything done in secret will be proclaimed from the housetops. Unless your sins are under the blood, you're in trouble. I don't want you seeing my book, and you don't want me seeing yours. Can you say amen? But if you're lost, your book is going to be opened, because your sins are not covered by the blood, and you're going to look and see Uncle Elmer, ooh, he looked real good in public, but there was some private sin. "Well, Lord, but why didn't you save him?" You'll see everywhere in his life where God tried to reach him, and he hardened his heart, and finally you'll say, "Lord, you did the right thing. You had no choice."

See, during that 1,000 years, we're going to have a lot of questions. The Lord wants us to enter eternity trusting His judgment. The Bible says in the book of Revelation, chapter 15, "Thy judgments have been made manifest." All that God's judgments will be open so that we can trust him as we enter eternity.

What will happen at the close of the 1,000 years? "Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, and in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives--" this is Zechariah 14, verses 1, 4, 5, 9--"His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives will split in two." This is one of those apocalyptic prophesies in the Old Testament where Zechariah pictures the Savior coming down. It's at the end of the 1,000 years. Feet touch the Mount of Olives. Why the Mount of Olives? This was a place that was especially precious to Jesus. Now, He was born in Bethlehem. It was just down the hill from the southern side of the Mount of Olives. On the Mount of Olives He told His disciples about the fall of Jerusalem and the signs of His Second Coming. It was on the Mount of Olives that Jesus wept over Jerusalem when they came in and had the triumphal entry. It was on the Mount of Olives you've got the garden of Gethsemane, where He was arrested, and He sweat and prayed "Not My will, Thy will be done."

And it was from the Mount of Olives by Bethany when He ascended to heaven. He said, "As I left, I'm coming back." That's what the angel said in Acts chapter 1. So Jesus is coming back. He'll be visible, He'll be real, and He's coming back the same place He left.

Don't go anywhere, friends. In just a moment we're going to return for the rest of today's presentation. What happens before and after the millennium, and how does it fit in with the two resurrections that are mentioned in the book of Revelation, and where will Satan and the fallen angels be during this time, and what about humans, the saved and the lost? We have an amazing free resource that we'd like to give you that addresses this wonderful topic. It's called "Satan in Chains."

This resource will give you and exciting, detailed look at what happens on earth and in heaven during the millennium. It'll answer your questions and bring hope to your heart. To get your free copy, call the phone number on your screen and ask for offer number 197, or visit the web address on the screen and after you read this incredible resource, make sure and share it with a friend. Well, let's get back to today's presentation and learn some more amazing facts about the Word of God.

And when his feet touched the Mount of Olives, something happens. You know, the earth is already a mess. You know, when bulldozers come in and they try and rebuild after a terrible earthquake, they just clear a big area. Jesus's feet touch that mountain and it splits. There's seismic activity. It splits and it forms a tremendous valley, and in that valley, the New Jerusalem comes down.

What happens next to free Satan from his prison? The Bible says that when Jesus comes down, not only does a new Jerusalem descend but the rest of the dead don't live again until the thousand years are finished. There you've got it, Revelation 20, verse 5, which means what? At the end of the 1,000 years, the devil's released from his prison. You know one reason the earth is called a prison for Satan, a bottomless pit during the 1,000 years? Satan is a workaholic. Would you agree? You ever heard someone say, "He works like the devil"?

I remember hearing a story where it talked about this man. He worked in an office where there was a lady, and she was always a positive, upbeat Christian. This man was kind of a negative atheist, and whenever he'd say, "Aw man, it's pouring cats and dogs out there," she was always positive. She'd say, "Yeah, the flowers are going to be beautiful in May." And he said "You know, what the politicians are doing is terrible." She said, "I'm so thankful for the freedoms that we enjoy." And he used to get so irritated at her because everything he said where he's just complaining, she'd always turn it positive. One day he thought, "I got her. She's a Christian." And one day he went into the office, he says, "Boy, that devil, isn't he terrible?" And she said, "Well, he certainly is busy."

He can't stand to be idle. Do you realize what is going on? Why is Satan being released from his prison? Why is he bound like this for 1,000 years? Why doesn't Jesus just destroy him? You realize that for 1,000 years Satan and his angels are bound. The Lucifer--the devil Lucifer, he told these other angels, "If you follow me, I've got a better government. I can do better than God." Satan said, "Six thousand years in this world" to demonstrate what his government would be like. I know you're thinking it's not fair that it happened here to us, but our first parents chose to listen to Lucifer instead of God. God said, "Don't eat it." The devil said, "Eat it," and they listened to the devil, and whoever you obey, that's whose servants you are.

Satan set up his rebellion here on this planet, and look at what's happened to our world under his leadership. Now, for 1,000 years, Satan and his angels need to roam this dark, cold planet, and they look at the results of the rebellion: broken-down cities, the earth is all cracked. It was a paradise, and his government of self-first selfishness destroyed everything.

So at the end of the 1,000 years when the New Jerusalem comes down, Jesus's feet like a hypodermic needle, He brings all the dead back to life. He calls them back to life. The devil can't resurrect anybody. Even Jesus is the only one who can resurrect the lost. He brings him forth. Now all the people who have ever lived through the ages, we got almost eight billion people alive on the world today, you add that up with all the people who have lived through history, you've got billions of people that are coming out of the grave.

What will Satan do when the wicked are raised? "He'll go out to deceive the nations that are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle. The number is as the sand of the sea." And they went up on the breadth of the earth. This is a global army. It's not just one nation. "And they surround the camp of the saints, the beloved city, the new Jerusalem."

Now, friends, this is where it gets really interesting. Everybody here this evening, do you know we are all going to meet again someday. I promise you. See, there's only four kinds of people. You've got the righteous alive and the righteous dead. You've got the wicked alive and the wicked dead. This is an event where everybody will be present and accounted for. You've got God and Christ and the good angels. You've got the devil and his fallen angels, all present and accounted for at this event.

And this is going to be a time that is going to be very profound, and there will be some very sober situations there when everybody meets again, and I think there's going to be a lot of revelation, everything that the lost have ever done against anybody is going to be playing. You're going to see fights breaking out among the lost. "I'm here because of you. Why didn't you tell me?" Parents, they said to their kids, "Oh, you can go to church if you want to, but we're staying home." And the kids grow up and they go wild, and they said, "Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you lead me to God?"

It's going to be a very sobering time. Says, "You will come up against My people Israel like a cloud to cover the land," all the wicked who've ever lived. At this crucial moment, what stops everything, before Satan launches his final attack? I don't know if he's going to have enough intelligence or materials or resources to build weapons or put together nuclear bombs. I don't know, but he's going to try and launch this attack against the new Jerusalem.

At this crucial moment, just before they launch their final attack, and Satan says charge, let's attack the city, the only chance they've got is attacking the city and listening to Lucifer. They know they're doomed otherwise. You read in Revelation 20, verse 11, now. "I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, and the dead were judged according to their works by the things that were written in their books."

We are saved by grace through faith, but if we're not saved, we're judged by our works. Matter of fact, even the saved are judged by their works because their works show whether they're saved, even if that work is a work of believing. Now, Jesus once said, "This is the work you shall do. Believe on the one the Father has sent." Now, can the Lord save 3,000 people at one time at Pentecost? Can He judge 1,000 people at one time? I think sometime we think of the judgment, God's going to say, "Okay, line up, take a number--" like when you go to Baskin-Robbins or the parts store, and everybody's waiting, "Okay, next," the bailiff says, the angel there, and you come up and they open the books.

God is going to play out in the heavens the whole thing. There just before Satan launches attack, Christ is going to be exalted above the city where everybody in the world can see Him, enthroned, the right hand of the glory of the Father. And in the sky and panorama of the great controversy between good and evil is going to play out, how God sent His own Son, and all the sufferings of Christ, and the opportunities in every person's life to be saved. I think you've heard one person almost dies, their life flashes before them, happens very quickly. This may not be so quick. God is going to take people all through the history. Their memories are going to be restored. They're going to see everything God did to try to save them, and they would not, and ultimately, they realize there's nothing else that God could do.

What will happen after the wicked are judged? "As I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow to Me, and every tongue will confess to God." See, Satan, he wanted to be God. He told Jesus, "Bow down, worship me, and I'll give you the world." Christ said, "Thou shalt not worship anyone but God." And Satan wanted Christ's position.

Ultimately, everybody's going to be brought to the point where they bow down and they confess. Now, for the righteous, if you repent and confess Jesus's name before he comes, you can be saved. Those who confess the name of Jesus afterward are confessing like Judas confessed, when he went into the temple and he threw down the blood money, and he said, "I have betrayed innocent blood." That was too late. He was just overwhelmed with a sense of his guilt and the foreboding of his punishment.

That is the wrong kind of repentance. It's like when the Pharaoh repented when all the plagues began to fall. That repentance won't save you. It says, "I heard a loud voice," Revelation 19:1 and 2, "I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven saying, 'True and righteous are His judgments.'" Before we enter eternity, God wants us to see that He is just, that He is fair, that He is good, that He is love, and even in the punishment of the wicked, He is doing the loving, just thing. God has no alternative but to do that. So everybody's going to meet again that day.

What happens next? "Fire comes down from God out of heaven and devours them." Before they ever get the fire off the first shot, after they all kneel and they say Jesus Christ is Lord, after this white-throne judgment where everyone's life passes before them and they see that God did all he could to save them, but they kept procrastinating. They would not surrender. They would not trust Jesus, and God rains fire down upon the wicked, and it says it devours them.

Now, different people are going to suffer different lengths of time. He that sinned much will suffer much. To whom much is given, much is required. There will be some people that will probably die very quickly. They had very little light or knowledge in their lives, and who do you think is going to suffer the longest? The devil. He has on his back the guilt of the whole world and all the fallen angels he led and he instigated.

You know, all of us have an influence for good or evil. I want my life to tell for good. I spent too many years in my youth having an evil influence, and but everybody, the Bible says that we'll answer for those things. If your sins are not forgiven and under the blood, there's a punishment for that. So everyone is going to be rewarded according to what they deserve.

There will be some lost, young people that maybe did not have knowledge. They'll die very quickly. Adolf Hitler, Idi Amin and others? They're going to look at the millions that died. Joseph Stalin? Millions that died because of their evil leadership. "And anyone who is not written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire." As that fire rains down, it continues to build up until it forms a lake. We saw that happen here in California about a week ago, how that famine in the land--and then we had a downpour, and now there's lakes where there was dust. Have you noticed? And the wicked are then devoured. This is the second death.

Now, let's just review what's going on here. Beginning of the 1,000 years, First Resurrection, Second Coming of Jesus; the end of the 1,000 years, the wicked Second Resurrection, Holy Spirit--a holy city descends, a new Jerusalem comes down to earth. During the millennium, the righteous are in heaven, we're engaged in judgment, having our questions answered, enjoying a 1,000-year Sabbath with the Lord. For 6,000 years you have this battle between good and evil here in the world, right? We're going to get a millennial rest with the Lord during that time. The earth is desolate. It is keeping Sabbath during that time.

After the fire goes out, what will God do for his people? Ah, friends, I want to see this. The Bible says, "For I create a new heavens and a new earth." Eventually, the fire goes out. Bible says there will not be a coal to warm at. Christ then creates a new heavens and a new earth. Whether He'll do it in six days or not, I don't know, but you and I will get to watch God speak a new paradise into existence from these balcony seats of the new Jerusalem. On the wall, we'll see a beautiful, new environment for us. The Bible says, "Blessed are the meek. They will inherit the earth." It's an earth made new, amen? "You shall go forth from the gates of the new Jerusalem." It says, "You shall go forth and thread upon the wicked, for they are ashes under the soles of your feet." If that's clear, please say amen. So they're being, they're receiving their judgment here in this world. "We, according to His promise, look for a new earth in which dwells righteousness."

We've just seen how things are going to play out in the last days. And God--this is not very far in the distance, friend. You know, the Bible tells us a day with the Lord is like 1,000 years. Here we are now about 6,000 years into human history based on Bible times, and then we're going to live and reign with Christ for 1,000 years.

We are at the sundown, right now, of the sixth day. That millennial Sabbath is going to begin soon. Jesus is going to come. There's going to be a resurrection. Those that serve him are going to be transformed and caught up to meet him in the air. Says, "Wherefore, comfort one another with these words." Friends, I find comfort in that, don't you?

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