Imagine a world that has enjoyed 1,000 years of peace.
War has disappeared. Nations are no longer devoting enormous resources to building weapons capable of destroying their neighbors. Jesus Christ governs the earth in righteousness. Satan, whom the Bible calls “the deceiver of the whole world” (Revelation 12:9), has been restrained from influencing mankind.
The prophet Isaiah describes a time when people “shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks,” when “nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore” (Isaiah 2:4).
It will be a world unlike anything mankind has ever experienced.
But then something happens that seems almost incomprehensible.
Revelation 20 describes Satan being bound at the beginning of Christ’s 1,000-year reign “so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished.”
Then comes a curious statement:
“But after these things he must be released for a little while” (Revelation 20:3).
Why must Satan be released?
After 1,000 years of peace, prosperity and righteous government, what possible purpose could be served by allowing the great deceiver to influence mankind again?
The answer reveals something important about human nature, character and God’s purpose for mankind.
Can Prosperity Prevent Deception?
One of the first questions that comes to mind is obvious. How could people who have lived in such prosperity possibly be deceived?
Perhaps we misunderstand prosperity. Wealth and prosperity are relative terms.
There was a time when having enough food to eat and a secure roof over your head represented considerable prosperity. Running water was once a luxury. Electricity transformed daily life. Automobiles provided mobility earlier generations couldn’t imagine. Air travel changed the world again, followed by computers, the Internet and instant global communication.
Yet children born into a world of running water, electricity, automobiles and computers don’t normally consider themselves extraordinarily wealthy. To them,those things are normal.
Today’s luxury becomes tomorrow’s expectation.
Project that principle hundreds of years into the future. Someone born during the eighth or ninth century of Christ’s 1,000-year reign will never have experienced the world we know.
War will be history. Widespread hunger will be history.
Governments that oppress and exploit their own populations will be history.
The enormous military establishments nations maintain today will be history.
That generation won’t remember the world Christ rescued mankind from. Peace and prosperity will be the only world they have ever known.
And human history demonstrates something important: prosperity has never made people immune to deception.
Having more doesn’t necessarily make people more thankful, and greater opportunity doesn’t automatically produce greater character.
The Lesson of Eden
In fact, the Bible begins with this lesson.
Adam and Eve didn’t rebel against God because they lived in poverty or suffered under an unjust government. God placed them in an extraordinary environment.
Genesis 2 describes Eden as a garden filled with trees that were pleasant to see and good for food. There was no warfare, crime, hunger or political corruption.
God Himself was their teacher.
Yet Genesis 3 records that when Satan presented them with an alternative to God’s instruction, they chose it.
Now move to the other end of human history.
Once again mankind will have experienced an extraordinary environment, this time for 1,000 years under the government of Jesus Christ.
Then Satan appears again.
Genesis and Revelation therefore provide remarkable bookends. Satan entered the extraordinary environment of Eden and deceived mankind. Revelation 20 shows him entering another extraordinary environment at the end of the Millennium—and again some human beings are deceived.
The lesson isn’t that environment doesn’t matter. It matters enormously.
The lesson is that a perfect environment can provide every opportunity to develop godly character, but it cannot choose godly character for us.
Universal prosperity does not equal universal conversion.
Who Are Gog and Magog?
Revelation tells us what happens when Satan is released:
“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 and Magog, to gather them together to battle” (Revelation 20:7–8).
The names Gog and Magog come from Ezekiel 38–39, where Gog is the hostile leader associated with the land and people of Magog.
But Revelation 20 doesn’t appear to restrict this final rebellion to one modern nation or ethnic population. John specifically says Satan deceives nations in “the four corners of the earth.”
John uses imagery his readers would recognize from Ezekiel—names associated with massive opposition to God—and applies it to a worldwide rebellion.
The participants are geographically diverse but spiritually united in rebellion against God.
And that creates another important question.
How could Satan find anyone willing to follow him?
Satan Reveals What Is Already There
After 1,000 years without Satan’s deception, some people will apparently remain susceptible to it.
They may have lived according to God’s laws because that was the society in which they were born. They may have participated in worship. They may have experienced God’s blessings throughout their lives.
But outward conformity isn’t necessarily inward conviction.
There is an enormous difference between living around God’s way and making God’s way your own.
God taught ancient Israel this lesson in the wilderness. Moses reminded them that God had allowed them to be tested “to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not” (Deuteronomy 8:2).
The test revealed something.
And that helps explain Satan’s final release.
Satan’s release doesn’t create their character. It reveals it.
God doesn’t need Satan’s assistance to accomplish His plan. But human beings must ultimately be allowed to choose.
What Will Satan Tell Them?
The Bible doesn’t tell us. Revelation tells us that Satan deceives them, but doesn’t tell us exactly how he does it.
Perhaps some have begun to resent authority. Perhaps generations that have inherited prosperity take it for granted. Perhaps some no longer appreciate why God’s government and laws are necessary.
We don’t know, and there is little value in pretending that we do. But we know Satan’s methods. His basic argument has changed very little since Eden.
Why should God decide how you live? Why shouldn’t you determine right and wrong for yourself?
That was essentially the argument presented to Eve. “You will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5).
Human beings have been attracted to that idea ever since.
Everyone Must Choose
Near the end of his life, Moses placed a fundamental decision before ancient Israel:
“I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life” (Deuteronomy 30:19).
That choice runs throughout the Bible. Adam and Eve had to choose. Ancient Israel had to choose. Christians today must choose.
And the people living during Christ’s 1,000-year reign will also have to choose.
They will have been taught. They will have experienced God’s blessings. They will have lived under the righteous government of Jesus Christ.
But none of those things can make their decision for them. God’s way must become their way.
And that brings this prophecy much closer to us today.
A person can grow up in a Christian home. He can attend church. He can know the Bible. He can be surrounded by people who believe in God.
But conversion cannot be inherited from parents, a church or a culture. At some point every individual must answer the question:
Do I believe God’s way because I have chosen it—or because it is simply the environment in which I have become comfortable?
The Last Rebellion
Revelation tells us that Satan’s final deception produces one last rebellion. Those who follow him surround “the camp of the saints and the beloved city.”
It doesn’t last long.
“Fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them” (Revelation 20:9).
Human rebellion against God finally reaches its end.
Satan, the being who first deceived mankind in Eden and who has influenced human civilization throughout its history, is removed from the scene (Revelation 20:10).
The great lesson of his final release has been demonstrated.
God can provide peace. God can provide prosperity. God can provide perfect government. God can teach mankind His truth.
But God will not force anyone to love Him or choose His way. Character requires choice.
And that is the reason Revelation says Satan “must be released.”
The thousand years will demonstrate beyond question that God’s way works.
Satan’s final release will demonstrate something else: Who has chosen to make God’s way his own?
The Final Phase of Human Existence
And then comes one of the most extraordinary events described anywhere in the Bible.
Revelation 20 describes a resurrection of the dead before God’s Great White Throne. Billions who lived and died without understanding God’s truth are brought back to life and given their opportunity to know Him.
But even that isn’t the end of the story.
The final two chapters of Revelation take us beyond human history, beyond death itself, to what God intended from the beginning:
“Behold, I make all things new” (Revelation 21:5).
That is where God’s plan for mankind is ultimately going.
What happens next? What does Bible Prophecy clearly show after Satan’s rebellion is over? Please stay tuned for our next article: The Great White Throne and Beyond
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