gog4

Gog & Magog
Part Four

What is the Meaning of the 1,000 Years?

Pre-millennial Approach
The binding of Satan is yet future. It will take place when
Christ returns.

A-millennial Approach
The binding of Satan represents the victory of Christ
over the powers of darkness accomplished at the cross.

Post-millennial Approach
Some interpret the chapter essentially as do the
amillennialists, but with an added note of optimism
about the success of the gospel in the present age.

Chapter Eight
Revelation 20:7-10 Satan Again “At Large”
“Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will
be released from his prison and will go out to deceive
the nations which are in the four corners of the earth,
Gog & Magog, to gather them to do battle, whose
number is as the sand of the sea. They went up on the
breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the
saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from
God out of heaven and devoured them. The devil, who
deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and
brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are.
And they will be tormented day and night forever and
ever.”
Please read and reread this portion of scripture, but think
carefully, perhaps

2 Gog & Magog

even visualize what you are reading. Ask yourself, is this
city Old Jerusalem or New Jerusalem? Who are the
saints encamped there in rest for a thousand years
duration? Are these saints ruling and reigning with
Christ? Is there more than one invasion of Gog & Magog
against Israel? Is the Millennium this present age or is it
the world to come? Are these saints in possession of
eternal life? If so, then, they have inherited the kingdom!

Premillennial View
Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will
be released from prison. Some understand this final
revolt to be exceedingly brief and fierce, but not
successful in interpreting the reign of the saints. Others
see the temporary interpretation of the reign of the
believers, only to be resumed with Christ after the “final
battle of Gog & Magog” in the coming new heavens and
earth.

The reason for God’s permitting Satan this last brief
respite seems to be to prove the character of those
generations of men born during the Millennium and
never previously having been tempted to rebellion.
Since those deceived by the devil at this time are the
nations which are in the four corners of the earth, some
expositors suggest that they comprise of only which are
located so far from the center of Christ’s reign as to
never have never come under His rule.

Others think these to be the same nations which had
until this time been subject to Christ, but which later
apostatize when seduced by the devil. Gaebelien says
that many people during the Millennium will serve the
divine government with feigned loyalty out of fear, all
the while maintaining sin in their hearts and longing for
the time when they can rise up to overthrow Christ’s
authority.

Gog & Magog are previously known to us ‘only’ from
Ezekiel 38 and 39, where they come down from the
uttermost northern parts to invade Israel in the last days!
Most understand the battle of Gog & Magog to occur
early in the Tribulation, prior to Armageddon, thus
making Ezekiel’s battle a different one from the one
described here. If so, then these nations will have
recovered their strength [and hate] during the thousand
years [and spread that hate to all the nations], after
suffering a crushing defeat   in the earlier campaign.

The attack is against the camp of the saints, who are
apparently viewed as camped around the city, mobilized
for her defense, and the ‘beloved city.’ The
3 Gog & Magog

city is Jerusalem. The Premillennial expositors are
nearly unanimous in identifying it the early Jerusalem
and not the heavenly Jerusalem seen descending in
chapter 21.

This battle is not fought by the saints protecting their
city, but by God, for fire came down from God out of
heaven and devoured the armies of Satan. [I wonder
where Satan’s angels are at this time, and, are the
nations his army]?

This resembles the results and the method of
destruction of the enemy in Ezekiel’s battle of Gog &
Magog as well: “I will rain down on him, on his troops,
and on the many peoples who are with him, flooding
rain, great hailstones, fire and brimstone” Ezek 38:22.
This battle being ended, the time has come for the final
judgment of all the lost and their consignment, along
with Satan, to the lake of fire v. 10.

Amillennial View
We had been forewarned in verse 3 that when the
thousand years have expired, Satan will be released
from his prison. In that place we were assured that his
freedom would be short lived, though here we learn that
his brief liberty is occupied in the same kind of
mischief…but on a more intensive scale…as that in
which he was engaged prior to being bound.

This speaks of a brief period of indeterminate duration at
the end of the Christian era, during which Satan will be
permitted to resist the church on a global scale. If Adams
is correct, this corresponds to the rise of “the man of sin,
the son of perdition” whom Paul described as being
“restrained” at the present, but who is to be later
“unrestrained” to deceive the world and to oppose all
that is called God 2 Theses 2:6-12.

The mention of Gog & Magog seems a direct
identification with the battle prophesied in Ezekiel 38 and
39, thus placing the time of this battle at the end of the
Millennium (church age), rather than before the
Millennium, where most premillenarians locate Ezekiel’s
battle.

The whole world having turned hostile to Christ and the
church, all nations will endeavor to battle against the
‘camp of the saints.’ [Does this mean that the Christians
of the whole earth are now camped around
Jerusalem]?? This
4 Gog & Magog

is warfare of a spiritual sort, but since such battle against
the church meant persecution in Revelation 11:7 and 13:
7, it is likely that persecution of the church on a grand
scale is what is in view here as well. The beloved city is
the New Jerusalem described more fully in chapter 21,
which is an image of the church 21:9-10; Heb 12:22.

The career of this rebel force and their diabolical leader
comes to a final end with the Second Coming of Christ,
here depicted with the words fire came down out of
heaven and devoured them.

The Second Coming of Christ will be “in flaming fire
taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and
on those who do not obey the gospel” 2 Theses 1:8. It is
the “day of the Lord … in which the heavens will pass
away with a great noise, and the elements melt with
fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it
will be burned up 2Pet 3:10. The coming of the Lord with
its attendant burning up of the earth clearly could not
have occurred at the beginning of the Millennium since,
in such a case, there would be no venue for the playing
out of the earthly drama in this chapter.

[SS note: So clearly, according to this view, if the Lord’s
Coming is at the end of the Tribulation, it could not be
“The Day of the Lord” because all things are burnt up
with fervent heat! Therefore, His Second Coming is to
destroy “those” (at Armageddon) who are destroying the
earth and to cast the beast and false prophet into the
lake of fire. Some believe that the beast is not an
individual but a landmass. That’s true! But, one of the
heads that was wounded is! And, if John is speaking of a
landmass, then, the entire kingdom of the beast is cast
into the lake of fire without having to face the White
Throne judgment].

At the Coming of Christ in firey judgment, the devil is not
going to be temporarily chained but, rather, he is to be
cast into the late of fire [where the beast and false
prophet have been earlier thrown?]. This appears to be
the meaning of Isaiah 27.

The lake of fire you will recall is where the beast and
false prophet are. This statement presents a slight
problem for amillennialism in that it presupposes an
earlier judgment upon the Beast and the False Prophet,
whereas this view
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considers both Rev 19:20 and Rev 20:10 both to be
describing the same event, namely, the Second Coming
of Christ.

In the attempt to remove the difficulty, R. Fowler White
proposes that “20:10” need only to imply that at the
Second Coming the devil is cast into the lake of fire
shortly after the beast and the false prophet are cast
there.

Postmillennial View
Now when the thousand years have expired v. 7 that is,
toward the very end of the long period of Christian
ascendancy, the release of Satan from his prison will
result in a return to his old activities, for he will go out to
deceive the nations v. 7, the very thing he had been
restricted from doing in verse 3. He finds no shortage of
sympathy from the nations, for they follow him en
masse as the sand of the sea v. 8.

[SS note: this, in fact, would mean then, that all the while
Satan was in prison the nations were not deceived by
him at all, and that they knew the truth of the gospel of
the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ; therefore, they
are without excuse].

Satan’s confederacy is called Gog & Magog v. 8, “names
taken from the prophecy of Ezekiel 38 and 39.” In Ezekiel
Gog is the name of a ruler, and Magog the name of the
people. For this reason, Gog & Magog may simply be a
way of saying “Prince & People.”

This final revolt of the heretofore suppressed forces of
evil targets the church of Jesus Christ, which is here
symbolically designated as the camp of the saints and
the beloved city v. 9. This battle may speak of a spiritual
conflict between truth and error waged entirely in the
realm of ideas and culture, or it may refer to political
persecution of Christians. Rushdoony writes:

“Some see a defeat of the saints and a victory for Satan
in the end-times, but only by importing other Bible
passages into the text, all with doubtful reference, since
they can be referred more intelligently to the Jewish war
or “the great Tribulation,” is such an interpretation
possible. We are here told only of an attempt, and the
attempt is now described as Satan’s attempt.”
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Chilton writes:
“The apostates rebel, and Satan’s forces briefly
surround the Church; but there is not a moment of doubt
about the outcome of the conflict. In fact, there is no real
conflict at all, for the rebellion is immediately crushed:
‘Fire came down from heaven and devoured them,’ as it
had the wicked citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah.”

Will the fire from heaven be literal? Augustine taught
that the fire was symbolic for the unwavering resolve of
the faithful not to apostasize or yield obedience to those
who rage against them. There is no reason to exclude
the possibility of actual fire, since such is said to
accompany Christ in His coming in judgment at the end
of the world 2 Theses 1:8; 2 Pet 3:10, 12.

SheepShed Commentary
Know this first, I am a “literalist;” therefore, my
comments are viewed from this belief in Scripture. I, too,
realize that the Spirit uses symbolic language, as did the
Lord Jesus, and that this language is interpreted for us in
the Scriptures themselves. It will take me some extra
time to write what I under-stand the Spirit has revealed
regarding: “The Beast Was, And Is Not Now.”
   When John wrote the Apocalyspe (and that is what it
is) the Beast was Rome! The angel explained to John in
chapter 17 that the Beast out of the sea with seven
heads and ten horns, the feet of a bear, body of a
leopard and the mouth of a lion was. Therefore, it is not
the Roman Empire revived in that sense of the word.
Gog & Magog has an active role in the Beast that was.
   We will study an overview of Daniel. The Bible speaks
of three classes of people on the earth: the Jews, the
Gentiles and the Body of Messiah; His Body is made up
of Jews and Gentiles; outside the Body, all are Jews and
Gentiles.
   In the Prophetic World, nations that ruled Jerusalem,
Israel and the Jews, are those Gentile nations of
Nebuchadnezzar’s Image and “when their times” are
fulfilled, Luke 21:24 seq. This is near fulfillment today.
   I hope to print a booklet, if the Lord is willing, entitled
“The Beast Was & Is Not.” That is, “The Beast & The
Arabs!” So until later then, May the Lord sincerely bless
and keep you and supply all your needs according to His
riches in Glory.
Shalom
Y SheepShed q Sent

SheepShed Publications

Lessons

Gog and Magog Part Four