PHIL HARRIS
Introduction
The Seventh-day Adventist view of the millennium is centered upon pages 656-661 of the book The Great Controversy. To summarize, Adventists believe God’s people are in heaven for a thousand years while Satan is in the “pit” which is understood to be the desolate, empty earth upon which he is free to roam. The initial response to this belief is that since Satan is a non-human, fallen angel (non-physical evil spirit) who was cast out of heaven and is now bound with chains, how can the “empty earth” scenario be true?
The follow-up question should be: how can Satan be both bound in chains and locked away in a bottomless pit, yet be free to roam upon a desolate earth? Moreover, where in the Bible is the earth ever characterized as a bottomless pit?
We saw in Revelation 19 that the earth was destroyed during the tribulation, culminating with the battle of Armageddon; it does not follow that it will be left desolate during the millennium.
Significantly, Adventism ignores or seems to forget Revelation 12:13-17 which concerns God’s protection of His covenant people Israel during the time of the tribulation which we read about in Revelation 12. Instead, Adventism sees this passage in Revelation 12 as applying to themselves, “spiritual Israel”, whom God will protect during the tribulation. This understanding warps the passages to come as well.
Another issue that conflicts with this Adventist view of an empty earth is the prophecy given to Abram concerning Israel that has not yet been fulfilled. God’s promise indicates that He has much bigger plans for the millennium than leaving the earth desolate for a thousand years:
On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, (Gen. 15:18).
It appears that what was promised to Abram will be fulfilled during the time of the millennium because afterwards, all things will be made new (see Ezek. 37:21-28).
Satan Bound And Cast Into the Pit
Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while (Rev. 20:1-3).
The bottomless pit
Whatever this pit is, it certainly is not the earth as we know of it. Since Satan is an evil spirit, this pit must be some form of literal spiritual confinement. For example, Peter writes about God binding evil angels:
For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment (2 Peter 2:4).
Ellen G. White seems to borrow Peter’s language in The Great Controversy when she says that Satan is in the pit so that he may not deceive the nations, but she contradicts herself by saying the pit is the desolate earth. The earth, however, according to Revelation 20:3, is obviously occupied by the nations. It cannot be desolate.
Dragon seized and bound
Satan the Dragon is no longer allowed to freely roam the earth. Instead he is bound with a “great chain” and cast into a non-physical pit for a thousand years. The real importance of knowing this fact is that he is no longer able to tempt the human race during the millennium as he has done since the fall of Adam and Eve.
While the text doesn’t directly mention the satanic angels who are in alliance with the Dragon, they are certainly in the pit with him, otherwise they would be free to deceive the nations as his proxy. Jesus the King of kings and Lord of lords, however, will reign without the devil’s interference.
The following verse further validates the idea that the devil and his evil angels are considered an evil unit:
“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels’ (Matt. 25:41).
Satan unable to deceive nations
The millennium will be a time where Jesus the righteous Lamb of God has gained full, eternal control of both the human race and the earth they occupy. Satan is not able to deceive the nations while cast into the pit.
To repeat, contrary to Adventist dogma, earth is not an empty wasteland for a thousand years. Instead, there will be nations of people throughout the whole world, most probably tasked with rebuilding what has be destroyed of the earth.
Isaiah, especially chapter 11, describes the beauty of what happens during this time:
The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them (Isa. 11:6).
If this verse is of the millennium as is suggested, there will be families with little children who grow into adulthood without Satan being able to tempt them into sinning. However, this is still not the time when all things are made new. Those born during the millennium still have “bodies of the flesh” just like we do. They, to, must respond to the gospel message, be covered by the blood Jesus Christ shed at Calvary, and be filled by the indwelling Holy Spirit before they can enter into the eternal kingdom of God.
We know that the millennial kingdom is not the eternal kingdom because Revelation 21 explains when the “new heaven and a new earth” will occur:
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God (Rev. 21:1-3).
However, in the millennium described in chapter 20 and also in Isaiah 11, it seems there will still be the institution of marriage with fathers, mothers, and children born to them. They form the nucleus of what is called “the nations” in the text.
After a thousand years
We are not specifically told why Satan must be released for a little while at the end of the millennium. What we do see is that Satan is not a part of human activity during the millennium. Humanity will be given an understanding of what life will be like when Satan no longer has access to them.
Reigning With Christ
Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who 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 for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years (Rev. 20:4-6).
Seated on thrones are those with authority to judge
While we aren’t specifically told who has the authority to judge, there are some passages that give us some insight. For example, Jesus says this in Revelation 3:21, 22:
The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches (Revelation 3:21–22).
Jesus also had this conversation with His disciples:
Then Peter said in reply, “See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first (Matthew 19:27–30).
Again in Luke Jesus says this:
“You are those who have stayed with me in my trials, and I assign to you, as my Father assigned to me, a kingdom, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel (Luke 22:28–30).
Paul also makes this provocative statement in 1 Corinthians:
When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life! (1 Corinthians 6:1–3).
We see from these passages that Jesus has promised His apostles and His saints who have overcome in Jesus that they will share His rule and reign. He even specifically told the twelve that they would rule over the twelve tribes of Israel, and we see that the millennium is a fulfillment of God’s promises to Abraham and David that there will be a kingdom with specific borders and a throne, a dominion, and a kingdom with the Son of David ruling.
While there are some unanswered questions, we see that Jesus and the apostle Paul have given some hints of Jesus’ plans for giving His saints authority to rule.
Those who have died for their testimony of Jesus come to life and also reign with Christ. This event is called the “first resurrection”, and contextually this event suggests that all the saints of God are here with Christ during the time of the millennium following the wedding supper of the Lamb.
Furthermore, those who experience the first resurrection need not fear the second death because they will not appear at the Great White Throne judgment of God. They are eternally glorified.
The rest of the dead
The rest of the dead remain dead until just after the millennium at the time of the Great White Throne judgment of God. This second resurrection and the Great White Throne is where the wicked will receive their eternal judgment.
Satan Out of the Pit and Into the Fire
And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, 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 (Rev. 20:7-10).
Satan released
When release from his confinement, Satan sets out to deceive the nations of the world for one last time. Even in a perfect environment under the rule of the Lamb, some will be born but not sealed in the Book of Life because they have not responded to the lifesaving gospel of Jesus Christ. They are still born dead in sin, and even without the influence of Satan, their own sinful nature will refuse to respond to the righteous reign and rule of Christ.
Gog and Magog
In the Old Testament the names Gog and Magog are mentioned several times and refer to persons or places which existed several hundred years apart from each other. This passage in Ezekiel clearly points to the “end times”. Some believe this is pointing to the battle of Armageddon. What we see, however, is that when Satan is released from the pit, he gathers the unredeemed from the nations of the world who will be led by “Gog and Magog”:
The word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, set your face toward Gog, of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him and say, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I am against you, O Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. And I will turn you about and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you out, and all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed in full armor, a great host, all of them with buckler and shield, wielding swords. Persia, Cush, and Put are with them, all of them with shield and helmet; Gomer and all his hordes; Beth-togarmah from the uttermost parts of the north with all his hordes—many peoples are with you. (Ezek. 38:1-6)
God is against “Gog, of the land of Magog”. While we can’t know with certainty just who Gog is, we know from this passage that this person is leading Satan’s final attack on God’s people, and that he is the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal.
The camp of the saints
The army that Satan has drafted from all the nations of world approaches the camp of the saints that surrounds the Beloved City, Jerusalem, where the King of kings and Lord of lords rules the earth (Rev. 3:12).
Fire from heaven
Once before in history God sent fire from heaven at the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah:
Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of heaven (Gen. 19:24).
It is clear this fire that falls on those assembling to attack the Beloved City is from heaven because it is very selective and only falls on those who have surrounded the camp of the saints. Satan’s planned attack never happens.
Satan cast into the Lake of Fire
The Lake of Fire was originally prepared for ”the devil and his angels” as Matthew 25:31-41 reveals:
“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. (Matt. 25:41)
Satan and his fallen angels, though, were tried, convicted, and sentenced long before the Great White Throne trial; in fact, this end was foreshadowed here:
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Gen. 3:15).
Now we see when the devil finally receives his final judgment. He is dispatched to the lake of fire before the Great White Throne judgment of the wicked—and significantly, the beast and the false prophet are already there. They had been cast into the lake of fire just before the beginning of the millennium (Rev. 19:20), and they are still there (present tense). This fact is significant for those of us with Adventist backgrounds. After the thousand years of the millennium, the beast and the false prophet are still being punished in the lake of fire. They have not been annihilated.
The Great White Throne
Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. (Rev. 20:11-15)
The Ancient of Days
The prophet Daniel names the one sitting on the throne of this courtroom; He is the Ancient of Days:
“As I looked, thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days took his seat; his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames; its wheels were burning fire. A stream of fire issued and came out from before him; a thousand thousands served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him; the court sat in judgment, and the books were opened” (Dan. 7:9-10).
God the eternal Father, the Ancient of Days, is symbolized by “his clothing which was white as snow”. His white raiment reveals His pure righteousness, and He is about to execute pure righteous judgment. In fact, the pure, snowy whiteness associated with the One on the throne is the reason this courtroom is called the Great White Throne.
Adventist Investigative Judgment
Rev. 20:11 begins with John’s words, “Then I saw”. This phrase indicates a passage of time; it is a statement of sequence. We see that Satan (and his demonic angels) have already been cast into the Lake of and therefore do not appear at the Great White Throne judgment.
In the Adventist dogma of the investigative judgment, it is taught that Satan is the scapegoat (Lev. 16:8,21,22) and bears the sins of the saints as determined at the Great White Throne Judgment. However, at the Great White Throne, Satan has already been judged, sentenced, and cast into the Lake of Fire with no hint in Scripture that he suffers for anything other than his own sin.
As for the saints of God, we have this promise given to us in the Old Testament Psalms:
He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him. (Ps. 103:10-13)
There is not the slightest suggestion in scripture that Satan plays any part in the removal of sin from the saints of God. Rather, it is the Lord Jesus who bore our sins outside the camp (Hebrews 13:11, 12). While the sacrificial lamb on the Day of Atonement represents Jesus’ sacrifice of propitiation, or the payment God required of sinners for atonement, the scapegoat represents expiation, or the vicarious punishment for our sins in another who bears the consequences we deserve. Sinners were sentenced to death and to removal from the fellowship of God’s people; Jesus both fulfilled the death sentence God demanded, and He took in Himself the banishment sinners deserved, carrying our sin far from us.
From his presence earth and sky fell away
As the trial is set to begin, the earth and all that is beyond disappear. This event is also foretold in 2 Peter:
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells (2 Peter 3:10-13).
This passage in Revelation 20 tells us that when the Great White Throne appears, earth and sky flee from God’s presence, and no place is found for them. All the wicked dead are exposed before God, and then, as Revelation 21 tells us, in an instant following the Great White Throne judgment, the earth and all the universe are made new.
The dead great and small
This chapter of Revelation tells us that the first resurrection happens at the beginning of the millennium, and it includes those who have believed God and served Him even to the point of death. The second death will not touch them. Only the unredeemed wicked who have never believed and trusted God and His provision for salvation will be judged at the Great White Throne. They are “the dead great and small”.
The second death
The dead ‘great and small’ are judged at the Great White Throne and receive an eternal sentence according to “what they had done”. Apparently, just as believers will receive rewards according to what they have done—rewards they will receive during their eternal life with the Lord (see 1 Corinthians 3:9–15), the wicked dead will receive degrees of punishment according to their deeds. These rewards or degrees of punishment do not determine whether the people are saved or lost. Eternal life or eternal death are based entirely upon whether or not a person believed and trusted the sacrifice for sin that the Lord Jesus provided for humanity.
The “dead”—everyone who is spiritually dead and not written in the book of life—is thrown into the lake of fire to suffer eternally because their names are not in the book of life. The lake of fire IS the second death. In other words, when the wicked are thrown into the lake of fire, they enter the second death.
Death and Hades
After all else has been cast into the Lake of Fire, then both Death and Hades, the holding place of the dead, are also cast in. In other words, the process of the separation of body and spirit which has been the “first death” every human being on earth has experienced, will be destroyed. The process of death will be thrown into the lake of fire along with the place of the dead, Hades.
This description of the end of death and Hades debunks another false Adventist dogma. Adventism says that nothing of a person survives the death of the body, yet Scripture reveals that our identities survive our bodies. In fact, believers know that when they die, they will be absent from the body and present with the Lord (see 2 Corinthians 5:1–9).
Adventism’s belief that man is only physical causes them to teach that Jesus’ account of Lazarus and the rich man is not actually real; it is “just a parable”. We read this account in Luke 16:19-31:
The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame” (Luke 16:22-24).
This story told to us by the Lord Jesus Himself reveals that Hades is very real holding place where the conscious suffering wicked dead await their appearance before God at the Great White Throne trial. Importantly, when we are tempted to say, “Oh, that’s just a parable designed to teach that the love of money and the way we treat the poor have eternal rewards,” we have to remember this: Jesus would never use an UNTRUTH to teach a TRUTH. He does not trick us nor confuse us with language designed to convey a message opposite of His actual words.
Summary
- Before the millennium begins, Satan is chained and cast into a “bottomless pit” so that he will not be able to deceive in the way he does in our own time. Since Satan is nothing more than an evil spirit, this prison is a not the physical place of this earth.
- Following the wedding supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19), the bride of Christ and the redeemed saints of God from all ages occupy the earth during the time of the millennium.
- The text mentions nations in all the earth, thus demonstrating that this is not a time of empty, pointless desolation. If it were, there would be none for Satan to tempt and convince to join him when he is released from the pit.
- Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords, rules all the earth from Jerusalem. We see in this scenario the fact that Israel is central to His plans and government.
- When released at the end of the millennium, Satan gathers followers and creates an army from all the nations for an attack on the city of God led by Gog of Magog. Since the earth during the time of the millennium does not yet exist, we have no way of understanding exactly what God and Magog represent.
- Before the battle can begin, God brings down fire from heaven and destroys Satan’s army.
- Satan and most likely all the demonic angels are then cast into the Lake of Fire where the Antichrist, the false prophet, and the whore of Babylon are already suffering.
- Then the Great White Throne trial begins, resulting in the unrepentant wicked who are not in the Book of Life being sentenced and sent to the Lake of Fire to suffer eternally. Finally, death and Hades are also thrown into the lake of fire..
- The completion of the great white throne judgment leads us to the coming final two chapters of Revelation where we will see that all things are made new.
—All biblical quotes taken from the ESV
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