Table of Contents
Satan Bound in the Bottomless Pit
Let’s allow the Bible to show the sequence of events:
The events at the beginning of the 1,000 years
- A devastating earthquake and hailstorm (Revelation 16:18–21)
- The second coming of Jesus for His saints (Matthew 24:30, 31)
- The saved dead raised to life (1 Thessalonians 4:16)
- The saved given immortality (1 Corinthians 15:51–55)
- The saved given bodies like Jesus (1 John 3:2; Philippians 3:20, 21)
- All the righteous caught up into the clouds (1 Thessalonians 4:17)
- The living wicked slain by the breath of the Lord’s mouth (Isaiah 11:4)
- The unsaved dead remain in their graves until the end of the 1,000 years (Revelation 20:5)
- Jesus takes the righteous to heaven (John 13:33, 36; 14:2, 3)
- Satan bound in the bottomless pit (Revelation 20:1–3)
The shutting up of the devil in the pit was merely a symbolic way of showing that his activities would be brought to a halt. This is made clear by the verse showing the purpose of his confinement, “that he should deceive the nations no more” (Revelation 20:3). The earth will be utterly depopulated at the second coming of Christ. According to Revelation 19:19–21 the sinners are all destroyed at the coming. At the same time the righteous are “caught up … in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thessalonians 4:17).
The events during the 1,000 years
- The earth is destroyed from a devastating earthquake (Revelation 16:18–21)
- The earth is desolate, a “bottomless pit” (Jeremiah 4:23, 28)
- The devil bound on the earth (Revelation 20:1–3)
- The righteous in heaven participate in the judgment (Revelation 20:4)
- The wicked are all dead (Jeremiah 4:25; Isaiah 11:4)
The events at the close of the 1,000 years
- Third coming of Jesus with His saints (Zechariah 14:5).
- The Holy city comes down on the Mount of Olives, which becomes a great plain (Zechariah 14:4, 10).
- The Father, His angels, and all of the righteous come with Jesus (Revelation 21:1–3; Matthew 25:31; Zechariah 14:5).
- The dead sinners are raised; the devil is loosed (Revelation 20:5, 7).
- The devil deceives the whole world (Revelation 20:8).
- The sinners surround the holy city (Revelation 20:9).
- The evil doers are destroyed by fire (Revelation 20:9).
- New heavens and earth created (Isaiah 65:17; 2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21:1).
- God’s children have eternal life with God on the new earth (Revelation 21:2–4).
In His service,
BibleAsk Team