THE LOOSING OF SATAN
“And
I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and
a great chain in his hand. And he laid
hold on the dragon…which is Satan, and bound him a thousand years…that he
should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled:
and after that he must be loosed a little
season…and shall go out to deceive the nations that are in the four
quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle…and
they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints
about, and the beloved city: and fire
came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them” (Rev. 20:1-9).
According
to the general consensus of interpretation by the theologians, preachers, and
teachers of the popular church systems, Satan is so powerful and such a
formidable foe that he has only to be set free for a “little season” from his
prison of restraint, for the entire glory of a thousand years of the personal
reign of Christ on a restored and paradisiacal earth, to collapse into
universal apostasy and rebellion, with nothing left to show for that Golden Age
Reign but a small “camp of the saints” surrounded by multitudes of revived
paganism and atheism, “Gog and Magog,” arisen from the four quarters of the
earthly paradise. Our friends who hold
this theory have a hard task before them.
They have sought to prove that Christ and His kingdom are no match for
the almighty Satan, and that Satan’s unloosing even for a brief season is
enough to totally upset the kingdom
of Christ
and procure universal revolt.
The
Holy Spirit, however, has given us this picture to understand — in the Spirit and by the Spirit. If we will look within the scriptures
themselves and discern God’s method of dealing with Satan in all generations
and circumstances, rather than expecting some new, mysterious, and bizarre act
of God, we will find the true revelation of “the loosing of Satan” to be as
clear as crystal. Let us, therefore,
present ourselves prayerfully and reverently before the spirit of truth, and
avail ourselves of what He would teach through the very words of the Lord
Himself, that we may profit from them, and know how to look for the complete
fulfillment of the vision John shows to us.
The
first thing we need to remember in order to understand this mystery is that
Satan is not a physical being. Therefore,
neither his binding nor his loosing are brought about by any physical
means. Satan is bound for a thousand
years, signifying that he is bound by and in the DAY OF THE LORD — the
spiritual kingdom of light, illumination, power and glory. Here the perimeter is set, the limit of our overcoming
in Christ. So long as we abide in the
consciousness of the Day of the Lord, and yieldedness thereto, the serpent is
sealed in the abyss of our flesh man.
Yet the moment we step outside the consciousness of the Day of the Lord,
and yieldedness thereto, the serpent is released. John says that he is released for only a
short season. What does this mean to you,
my brother, my sister? Can you not see
that once we relax our guard, and the serpent raises his ugly head after we
have known the overcoming glory of God in our life, it takes only a short season for us to get the message
that we’re living in the wrong realm!
Once having tasted of the heavenly life and the power of His
resurrection we have no desire or inclination to return as a dog to his
vomit. The heavenly life is our origin,
our home, where we came from! After we
have renounced the unfruitful works of darkness,
after we have experienced HIS DAY — His rest, His peace, joy, righteousness, wisdom, power, and glory
— when we find ourselves descending, and suddenly the tormentors return, it
takes only a short season for us to realize we must flee back into the arms of
our Saviour.
“And after that he must be loosed a little
season.” So many, thinking only with
the natural mind, have let this phraseology confuse the interpretation. The thing of significance to which I would
point you is the little word “after.” This word in the Greek is meta, which is a very interesting
word. It does not mean clearly or
exclusively “later on in time,”
“subsequently,” or “successively,” as does our English word
“after.” The clearest and primary
meaning of the word (see Strong’s Concordance
or Lexicon) is “accompaniment” or “amid.”
All John is saying is that accompanying,
amid, or in conjunction with the
thousand years, or the Day of the Lord, Satan is allowed a little season of
testing. A similar scenario was shown us
in chapter twelve of the Revelation wherein we read, “Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come
down unto you, having great wrath, because
he knoweth that he hath but a SHORT TIME” (Rev. 12:12). Twice in that chapter we have the “short
time” or “little season” associated with the working of Satan just as we have
also in our present text.
Let
us prayerfully consider what is meant by the statement, “…he knoweth that he hath but a short
time,” because it addresses the same “little season” we meet in chapter
twenty. Unfortunately, tradition says he
knows that he has but a short time because Jesus is coming back and the
millennium is about to begin.
Hogwash! That’s not at all what
the Holy Spirit is indicating. The adversary knows that you have identified
with the truth as it is in Christ, you now know
who you are, what your true identity is, and the word and spirit of Christ
have been raised up within you as the power of your life. He knows that you have been given an entrance into the Day of the Lord in
your life and you have laid hold upon the power of the ascended Lord who reigns
over all things and now nothing shall be
impossible to you! He knows that you
have no desire any longer to dwell in the dust realm of the unconverted soul,
for your soul has been purified and raised up to reign with Him in heavenly
places. Neither do you have any desire
to walk any more in the passions and lusts of the flesh where he dwells. He knows that his time is short because you
will no longer tolerate his lies and deceptions in any department of your
being, in any vestibule of your house, or in any street of your city — the city
of God which you
are! That’s what he knows — and he fears
that his ability to operate in any way or do anything in either your soul or
your body — the dust realm he was consigned to from the beginning — is now
drawing to a close!
Considering
all the glorious, divine, and august things written in chapter twelve of the
Revelation about the victory of the sons of God over the dragon — nothing can
be more certain than the fact that Satan’s perception that his time is short
has nothing whatever to do with a “second coming” or “the end of the world,” or
a “thousand year reign of Christ,” for none of those things are even alluded to
in chapter twelve. It’s all about the birth
of the manchild, the manifest sons of God, and Satan
being cast out of the “heavens” where they dwell, that is, their spiritual life. It means that when Satan is cast out of
our “heavens,” the high realm of our spiritual life, he then seeks to stir
things up in our “earth,” or our soulical realm, and in our “sea,” our body or
fleshly realm. Can we not see by this
that in chapter twenty God is now dealing with Satan in these lower realms of
our life, and by the Day of the Lord he is “bound” or “restrained” in the abyss
of our fleshly life. Isn’t it
wonderful! And now, only for a little season — just as it was with the
firstborn Son of God in His brief wilderness
testing — can Satan ascend from the abyss to briefly but powerfully test
us also to the uttermost!
Do
I believe in a real devil? Sure I
do. Not the one the preachers describe
with the red suit, forked tail, horns, and pitchfork — but the devil is very
real. Let me say that his playground is
in our thinking, in our mind, emotions, desires, and will. That’s where he wreaks havoc, that’s where he
has his heyday, that’s where he has his sadistic fun. When God moves to bring us into the image of
Christ, Satan is first cast out of our
religious realm, our spiritual life. The
heavens of our spiritual life are
cleansed, his power broken. Only then
can the Lord begin to move upon our “earth” and “sea,” our soulical life and
our fleshly man. Satan is bound there by
the presence and glory of Christ in the Day of the Lord. This “day,” like all days, begins with a
dawning, growing brighter and brighter as the sun of righteousness arises upon
our land. We have all experienced the
fact that in those times and seasons when the presence and glory of Christ
shine bright and overflow and overwhelm us we are caught up into the exalted mind of Christ and no
dragon can operate there. Sin in all its
constituents and manifestations is neutralized, rendered inoperative, made of
no effect by the power of His presence and life! There is only one thing that matters during
that high time — God! When the Spirit is
moving mightily in our lives no anger, no lust, no evil thoughts, no fleshly
desires, no earthly concerns bedevil us at all!
We are free! Nothing of the world
has a hold on us Our whole consciousness
is permeated and controlled by the righteousness, peace, and joy of the Holy
Ghost! That is when Satan is bound in
the abyss!
Thus
the “angel” — the message out of the heavens of God’s Spirit takes hold of your
mind, your emotions, your passions, and your will and locks them away,
restraining and sealing up their ability to function on any level, subjected to
the mind of Christ. Yet — there is also
a season when Satan is released to come out of his prison and test us
again. Thank God, he is not released forever, he is not permanently paroled, he is only released for a “little
season.” You see, my beloved, as we
learn to walk in the spirit and live in the heavens of the presence of the Lord
and the mind of Christ, our “lapses” back into the old mindset, into natural
ways of thinking, into fleshly actions, reactions, and desires, and even our soulical
religious inclinations become less and less — oh, yes, just a little season! We have no desire to live on that level, so
we focus on Christ and ascend back onto the higher plane of life and victory.
It
matters not what I say — many who read these lines have been there, have
experienced precisely what I am talking about, have walked in the light of that
most holy place in God, have heard the voice of the messenger that bound within
them the hiss of the serpent, where they knew only peace, purity, power, and
glory. In the blessedness of that moment
your Father provoked you with an everlasting provocation — you will never again be comfortable or content to
dwell in the lowlands of the flesh! As
long as we walk in the Day of the Lord Satan is bound. When he is fully bound we arrive at the
experience of verse four to live and reign with Christ upon His throne! As I meet and know by the spirit those precious
elect ones of God who have passed through the dealings, purgings, refinements,
and triumph of the Christ-life within I can testify that I see thrones, and I see them
that sit upon them! Just as John saw
them, I see them! These have passed from
death unto life, from carnality to spirituality, from the earthlies to the
heavenlies, and in Christ they live and
have their being and even now they are reigning
with Him in the light of the Day of the Lord! Oh, the mystery of it! Oh, the wonder of it!
Yet
— there is a truth beyond this. The
beautiful truth being revealed here by the Holy Spirit is of extraordinary
importance to everyone who has received the call to sonship. You see, my beloved, it is not
enough to have the serpent restrained within us. The Day of the Lord will do that! Even though he is bound, this is not
sufficient. A beautiful picture of this
is given us in the experience of king Solomon.
Solomon said, “Now the Lord my God
has given me rest on every side, and there is no adversary or disaster” (I
Kings 5:4). In the Hebrew text this
reads as, “there is no satan.”
Later, after Solomon turned away from the Lord to worship other
gods, we read, “…the Lord raised up
against Solomon an adversary” (I
Kings 11:14). Again, the Hebrew text
reads that the Lord raised up against Solomon “a satan.” For Solomon Satan was bound and then set free
— depending upon how he was walking! So long as Satan is only “bound” or
“restrained” by the Lord he can also be freed.
Notice — he does not escape; he
is released! (Rev. 20:3,7). The
same word of the Christ that imprisoned him also releases him. As long as he has not been dealt with, as
long as there is a carnal mind and a flesh nature for him to be bound and
imprisoned in, he poses a danger. HE
MUST HIMSELF BE DEALT WITH! When he is
bound that is God’s work in us with
respect to Satan and his activity. Indisputable as is that
blessed fact, the truth of the destruction of the serpent is
greater by far! We must eventually and
ultimately deal with that relentless enemy of life that has deceived all that dwell upon the earth. He
will for a little time be loosed to fester up any remaining ungodliness within
us so that God’s Fire can devour any remaining unrighteousness yet in our
land. This is the true “entire
sanctification” some speak of! Finally
Satan himself will be destroyed by the Great and Wonderful Fire of God — the Lake of Fire!
Volumes
could be written if we were to explore every aspect of this significant truth,
but the important thing here is that Satan is bound in the Day of the Lord in
the depths of our being, so far down he can neither speak nor manifest. But when the thousand years are finished —
when the Day of the Lord in our lives has accomplished its full work in our
soul and flesh life — he is loosed for our testing, as Jesus was tested in the
wilderness — to prove our sonship. There
is also a loosing in another class of people, but we will consider that further
on. Have you not noticed how strangely
Matthew and Mark speak of Christ’s temptation?
“And immediately the Spirit drove Him into the
wilderness to be tempted of the Devil” (Mat. 4:1; Mk. 1:2). What a strange
statement! Jesus had presented Himself
before the Father at Jordan,
and the Father witnessed of Him before all: “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” Just as God declared Job to be a perfect
man, so He declared His Son to be well pleasing to Him in every way. Then immediately the Holy Spirit of God
drives the blameless Son of God into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan, the arch enemy of all
righteousness, a murderer from the
beginning, and a liar and the father of lies!
Ah, but it was necessary that the Son of God be proven, be made strong, to
overcome in these realms before
proceeding on into His glorious sonship ministry and His death and
resurrection.
When
Jesus was driven by the Spirit into the wilderness, it was not to see whether
or not He would sin. That wasn’t it at
all! The Father witnessed that He was pleased
with everything in Jesus.
With what was the Father pleased?
What had Jesus done that pleased the Father? The fact is, He had not yet performed even
one miracle. He had never healed any sick, raised any dead, cast
out any devils, nor done any signs. He
had never preached a sermon, and He certainly
had not prayed and sweat blood in dark Gethsemane
or gone to the cross. Before one
gracious word of teaching had ever fallen from His holy lips, before He had
saved a soul or performed even one act of ministry the Father testified, “This
is my beloved Son IN WHOM I AM WELL PLEASED.”
The Father was pleased — for thirty long years this Son had walked with
Him, learned His ways, reverenced His name, grown in His nature, and walked in
His mind. The purpose of the wilderness
was not to determine whether or not He was perfect, but to demonstrate to the
flesh realm, to principalities and powers, and to all realms from the lowest to
the highest that indeed
HE WAS THE PERFECT MAN! As such, He was
able to say, “The prince of this world
cometh, and hath nothing in me.” There was nothing in the Son that
pertained to Satan, nothing that belonged to Satan, nothing that corresponded
to Satan, nothing that responded to Satan.
NOTHING! Satan was completely
obliterated from the life of Jesus!
But
you see, beloved, all the powers of His flesh, all the powers of His
natural mind, all the powers of His soul and body, and all the powers of the
human religious inclinations rose up, marshalling
every weapon, every force, the soldiers of all the energies of the natural man
(Gog and Magog), and came up against the holy city, that is, the government of
God by the spirit within the firstborn Son of God — and they, making their last
stand, compassed His city about; but the Fire of God’s Word came down out
of the heavens of the Spirit of God within Him and devoured all the
adversaries. Can you not see the
mystery? After passing the test His real
ministry began! So with us, His younger
brethren — when our Gog and Magog, all the powers of our earth man, have
assailed us and have been consumed by the Fire of God’s Living Word within us,
our sonship will be proven and complete.
The glory of the New Jerusalem will then be revealed, and the throne of
God’s sons within the city, and all the earth shall be filled with the
knowledge of the glory of the Lord and the nations will walk in the light of
the city. It is indeed
wonderful!
GOG AND MAGOG
“And
when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which
are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog
and Magog, to gather
them together to battle. And they
went up on the breadth
of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city:
and fire came down from God out of
heaven, and devoured them” (Rev.
20:7-9).
The
only other reference in the Bible to Gog and Magog is found in the
thirty-eighth and thirty-ninth chapters of Ezekiel. This use of the term by John is rooted in the Old Testament passage. One will have to admit that this is a rather
strange battle which Ezekiel described in his vision. Israel is pictured at peace and
dwelling in security in her land, with no attempt made to defend herself
against the enemy which suddenly and powerfully sweeps down upon her. Without a struggle, as soon as the enemy marches into the land,
he is smitten with a catastrophic judgment directly from God. The rest of the vision tells of a glorious
celebration of victory on the part of the people of Israel. We must keep in mind that in both passages
the language is highly figurative and symbolic, and it can only be interpreted
in that light. The fact is, history
records no battle in the history of Israel that answers to the one
described in Ezekiel’s vision. Nor can
we conceive of it as taking place in a literal way in our day or at some future time, for, you see, all the invading army
comes riding upon horses, a great company having bucklers and shields, bows and
arrows, and all of them handling swords.
In addition to this all their weapons are made of wood, and there are so many of them that no man of Israel needs to
cut any fire wood for seven years while they use these weapons for fire wood! It certainly doesn’t sound like modern
warfare, does it?
If John’s vision is symbolic, then so also is
Ezekiel’s. The only difference is that
John’s version is a little more complete and is given to us in the fuller light
of New Testament revelation. In both
instances most of our struggles of the Lord’s people are already over, and they
are dwelling in a sense of peace and security.
There is no struggle at all. In
John’s vision this is due to the fact that they have already overcome the
beast, the false prophet, Mystery Babylon, and now Satan himself has been bound
in the abyss. Ah, there is peace and security!
But suddenly the old devil is brought out of his pit where he has been
placed. He is turned loose in their
midst and there is unleashed upon them an awful attack of the adversary! He gathers all his forces and rants and raves
against the redeemed of God. But before
he is able to harm a hair on the head of one saint, at once the fiery judgment
of God falls upon all the enemies and the devil who leads them. This, my beloved, is no literal warfare
fought with conventional weapons — this is the
final battle of our spiritual warfare; this is the climax of the most magnificent
celebration of victory!
Some
years ago a brother by the name of Charles Robinson wrote the following: “This month marks the 95th
anniversary of my birth. One thing that
impresses me as I look back over the years is the way world events have
recycled themselves, giving me a sense of having ‘been there, and done
that.’ Whoever said, You only go around
once in life, probably had not lived his life out at the time. Although it is true as a certain poet has put
it, ‘There’s only one life, ‘twill soon be past,’ it is often true that we
senior citizens feel a sense of déjà vu, a
strange feeling of having been here before.
“It
is this very feeling that comes over me when I read current dispensational
literature or listen to prophetic (pathetic?) preachers on radio and TV. As a member of what journalist Tom Brokaw
called ‘The Greatest Generation,’ I sometimes feel that I am back again in the
‘good old days’ of the great depression and the ensuing era of World War II. Before the days of television and in radio’s
heyday, the airways were burdened with the same premillennialist predictions
that are still being heard today.
Apparently the ancient preacher had it right: The thing that has been, it is that which shall be; and that which is
done, is that which shall be done: and there is nothing new under the sun (Eccl.
1:9). Many big-name prophecy preachers
then, but virtually unsung today, were touting the same literal predictions that make some folk slack-jawed today. One fellow I remember, with the unusual name
of Smith, had a daily radio broadcast called ‘God’s News Behind the News.’ Well, I have news for him! He often said that the Bible reads like
tomorrow’s headlines. Prophecy preachers
today are still repeating the same pat phrases and they are no more true now
than they were then. Literalists of that
day sought to apply the Bible prophecies to current world events as if to try
to confirm the accuracy and infallibility of the Word of God. If that were so, I am afraid we are all in
trouble, because the predictions they made then never developed, so they would disprove
rather than prove the Bible.
“In
pre-war Europe the stage was being set, as it
were, for the inevitable second world war.
Adolph Hitler, as the dictator of Nazi
Germany, invaded virtually all of western continental Europe except Italy, where
his ally Benito Mussolini, ruled with despotic power. Together they controlled all of Europe, as Japan and China
did much of Asia. Oddly, Soviet Russia, the dreaded ‘Gog’ of
premillennial frenzy, remained uncommitted, but often sided with the allies,
not with the side they were supposed to be on!
Prophecy preachers then loaded the airways with dire warnings of a revived
Roman Empire controlling the world and determined to annihilate Israel. They based all of this on literalistic
interpretations of Ezekiel, Daniel, and Revelation. All of this was purported to introduce the
‘anti-Christ’ and the dreaded ‘great tribulation.’ Some preachers then fingered Hitler as the
most probable anti-Christ, but at least one that I remember captivated
audiences, saying, ‘Don’t watch Hitler, watch Mussolini!’ I wonder if some are still watching! As dictator of Italy,
Mussolini seemed most qualitative to head up a revived Roman Empire, since he
was already in power in Rome. Again these assertions and allegations were
backed up with ‘proof texts’
right out of the Bible!
“Well,
now everyone knows the outcome of those spurious interpretations of
scripture. Hitler, defeated and ruined,
most likely died by his own hand in an underground bunker. No one knows for sure. Mussolini was assassinated and strung up by
his heels from a street-light pole in Milan. The world situation did not turn out at all
the way the dispensationalist preachers said the Bible said it would. They thought they were so right, but they
were so wrong. I do not know what became
of the pre-war prophets, but they seem to have ‘folded their tents like the
Arabs, and as silently stolen away.’ For
years things were pretty quiet on the literalistic prophecy front; but today we
are hearing it all once more: Gog and Magog (Russia
and China),
the king of the north, the anti-Christ, the rapture, the great tribulation,
etc., etc., and I am saying to myself, This is where I came in! It did not happen before, and it is not going
to happen (like that) in our present time.
I still sit here day after day, and hear preachers rant and rave about
the Bible being tomorrow’s newspaper,
and how the entire dispensationalist and literalist agenda must come about
because that is what the Bible teaches!
These dear brethren — and I do love them — need to read news of world
events in the light of the Bible, not give forced interpretation to the Bible
in the light of world events” — end
quote.
For
many years my prayer has been that God would put His thoughts, His understanding,
and His wisdom into my mind, and into the minds of all His precious people. Bear with me for a moment while I reiterate
once more that the book of Revelation is a spiritual
book addressed and sent to a spiritual
people. In these desperately trying
and difficult days through which we are now passing at the conjunction of the
ages, it pleases the Father in heaven to open the eyes of His called and separated
elect to many wonderful and glorious spiritual
truths not seen or understood by men who read the scriptures with carnal
minds and human understanding. A light
brighter than the noonday sun, even the light
of life, is shining into the hearts of those who are separated unto Him,
giving them the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ. If you ask God for His
understanding, you will now be able to discern between the carnal understanding
of the natural mind and the spiritual understanding of the thoughts of God.
I
believe that I have the mind of the Lord when I say and assure you that you
don’t need to be concerned about the events unfolding in the outer world of
natural men. You need not worry about
the things you hear on the news, the changing world conditions, economic
troubles, wars and rumors of wars, terrorism, tyranny, and the rise and fall of
nations. You don’t have to worry about
Europe, Russia, China, or the
Moslem nations. All of these things
certainly affect our lives, but very little of it, if any, fulfills any
specific prophetic scripture of God’s word.
Russia is not Gog and
Russia or China are
neither one the Magog of the Revelation.
Russia is not going
to go down and attack the state of Israel. That’s all hogwash, just carnal-minded
speculations and delusions of men void of the
spirit of wisdom
and revelation from God. It’s not going
to happen! That’s not what either
Ezekiel or the Revelation is telling us about at all. Hear it!
When we read about Gog and Magog we must understand by the Spirit what
the symbol stands for. In our text you will see that Gog and Magog compass the camp of the saints on the breadth of the whole earth.. Now, let me ask you, is Russia compassing the whole earth, has even
communism swallowed up the whole world, is the kingdom of Russia
even united within itself? NO! Its former empire has fallen apart and it is
now weakened among the nations. It never did, nor does it
now, have a worldwide domain.
But
Gog and Magog compass the “camp of the saints.”
What is meant by “the camp of the saints”? The expression, rightly understood, is full
of interest. When Israel was moving out of Egypt under
God’s guidance, into the land of promise, it became the Lord’s host (Ex. 12:17,41,51). When its tents were pitched it became the
Lord’s camp (Ex. 15:19; 16:13). God
was in its midst, and therefore the camp was holy. The unclean were to be put outside (Num.
5:3-4; Josh. 6:18). Now, under the
guidance of the greater Joshua, Jesus, the called and chosen elect of the Lord
are following Him to their promised land — the measure of the stature of the
fullness of Christ! They are the camp of heaven on earth now, or the true
people of God, and the camp of the saints is the body of Christ, and the glorious body of Christ is indeed OVER THE
WHOLE WORLD! Gog and Magog assault also
“the beloved city,” the heavenly Jerusalem. The saints are at first the tent-pitchers in
this heavenly walk. Thus, the camp of
the saints is distinct from the city; but it bespeaks all those separated ones
of the Lord’s people who have come out of the Egypt of this world and have made
the journey from the camp in the wilderness to the glorious city of God — a
strong people, a mature people, a perfected people, a compacted people, a
peaceful people. So therefore it is
impossible for Russia
to be Gog and Magog, or for any other world power of the past or future to
fulfill the prophecy, for our great and eternal Father is not warning us about
the petty kingdoms of men, but speaks to us of spiritual realities, both positive and negative, that touch our
lives as we go on to perfection in
Christ! God is not concerning
himself with either Russia
or the nation called Israel
— He’s concerning Himself with you!
The
literalistic teachers of prophecy fail
to seriously think through many of their speculations and assertions. The common teaching among fundamentalists and
evangelicals is that the thousand years in chapter twenty of the Revelation is
a literal period of one thousand
years, preceded by a seven-year ‘great
tribulation’ with the reign of ‘anti-Christ.’
Somewhere in connection with the great tribulation and the second coming
of Christ Gog and Magog, most often identified as Russia,
will invade the land
of Israel
and there be defeated by the Lord raining great hailstones, fire, and brimstone
upon them out of heaven (Eze. 38:21-22; Rev. 20:7-9). There is a very serious problem, however,
with this hypothesis if indeed
it is all literal. The preachers are all expecting this
prophecy to be fulfilled, perhaps in our generation, when the fact is that
according to Revelation 20 the war of Gog and Magog takes place at
the end of the millennium! These
prophecy preachers are sneaking Gog and Magog all the way back to a point before
the millennium even begins! Therefore,
if it is literal, it certainly has nothing to do with the Russia of our
day because it is at least another
thousand years in the future! The truth
is, of course, that the expression “Gog and Magog” does not, and never did, refer to Russia. That has been entirely made up from whole
cloth, and simply repeated so many times that many have assumed it to be the
unadulterated word of God!
To
understand the imagery of Gog and Magog it will be helpful to note that in
Jewish writings ‘Gog and Magog’ was a frequent expression used for the
rebellious nations of Psalm 2, which gather
together against the Lord and against His anointed. As time went on, in Jewish thought Gog and
Magog came to stand for everything that
is against God. The idea was that in the
end God would be the victor, gathering to battle and destroying completely all
of Israel’s
enemies! In its spiritual meaning, it
signifies the whole flesh realm, within and without — the world, the flesh,
and the devil — all the amassed powers
of the Adamic
life. It is Satan loosed out of his
prison, together with all his agents and instruments, to assail our
spiritual life in an effort to deceive
and ruin us just before our finest hour.
It is as Jesus in the wilderness, tempted by the devil in his most
cunning and insidious assault, immediately prior to His manifestation as the
Son of God with power!
Gog
and Magog comes from “…the four quarters
of the earth” (Rev. 20:8). The four
“quarters” of the earth signify the four parts, regions, or directions. In scripture the number four takes whatever
is happening, positive or negative, and expands it in every direction — north,
south, east, and west. If you’re
traveling north, south, east, and west you’re going in every direction! It denotes that which is world-wide or universal.
It encompasses everything in whatever realm it is applied to. In relation to Gog and Magog and the four
quarters of the earth it bespeaks all
the powers of the earth-realm within
us. When you look at your soul, the earthiness of your life, you
will find four quarters! You will find
the intellect, the will, the emotions, and the desires. There are four aspects, sides, corners,
or quarters of the soulical life! It
includes within it the soulical religious
realm in all its carnal characteristics.
This is where our real enemies lie!
The
“nations” that are deceived so completely are “in the four quarters of the
earth.” These “nations” are called Gog
and Magog. The RSV translates correctly,
“the nations which are at the four corners of the earth, that is, Gog and
Magog.” So the “nations” are not
something different from Gog and Magog, Gog and Magog do not gather the “nations,” (Satan does that!)
but the “nations” are Gog and Magog, and
they fill the whole earth-realm! As we have pointed out earlier, attempts
to associate these names with one specific nation or group of nations have
given rise to the theories according to which Gog and Magog are Russia, or England,
or China,
or some other power. In view of the
particularly vicious anti-Christian character of the Turks in his day, Martin
Luther called them Gog and Magog. But
the fact that Gog and Magog are the “nations,” and the “nations” are “in the
four quarters of the earth,” eliminates entirely the thought of any one nation
alone, or any two nations together, being “Gog and Magog.”
Their
number is “as the sand of the sea.”
Notice! They are identified with
both the “sea” and the “earth,” that is, with the body realm and the soul realm. It bespeaks mankind — the flesh. They gather for battle. Oh, yes, the natural man, with the passions
and lusts of the body, and the carnal mind of the soul, always gathers
to battle against the spirit! “The flesh wareth against the spirit, and
the spirit against the flesh.” What
an imposing array they present! “They
went up on the breadth of the earth.”
They “marched
up” and covered the whole expanse of the earth to the horizon in all directions
from “the camp of the saints.” The
spiritual life is portrayed as completely surrounded and outnumbered! “The beloved city,” the elect of the Lord, is
left without a single apparent avenue of retreat or escape.
It
also speaks to the soulical realm, the inherent religious nature of man. This points to deceptive teachings of
apostasy everywhere “surrounding the saints” which is “the beloved city.” It does not mean soldiers, armies, tanks, and
missiles arrayed to inflict physical harm or destruction on the Lord’s
people. Though that has happened, and is
still happening to believers today in various part of the world, the vision
would not be given in signs and symbols if it were fulfilled in such a
literal way. It is the Father’s fiery word of truth (Jer. 23:29) that
devours and burns up all the adversaries of deception and false doctrines in
the heart of every saint. Oh, how the
whole church world is full of false doctrines and deceptions which surround all
the elect of the Lord! We can hardly buy
a book from a Christian bookstore because they are all so laced with the errors
and falsities of Babylon!
What
a picture! And what does it tell
us? It speaks to us that man’s flesh,
when not restrained, will always stand up in opposition to the Christ life. And it tells us that this is true for every man.
All men in coming to Christ and entering into His kingdom must come
the same way. God does not have one way
for His elect and another way for the rest
of mankind. We are the
“firstfruits” of His redemption and as the firstfruits are harvested unto Him
so shall the whole field — the entire crop be harvested unto Him. Surely the apostle Peter spoke of this great
truth when he wrote: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil,
walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: whom resist steadfast in the faith:
knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished
in your brethren that are in the world” (I Pet. 5:8-9). You see, my beloved, if the great religious
city of Babylon
must be destroyed in the lives of God’s elect, it must also be destroyed in the
life of every man who experiences the redemption of Christ. If the bestial nature must be purged from the
lives of God’s sons, then the bestial nature must likewise be purged from the
life of every man for whom Christ died.
If the voice of the false prophet is silenced in the lives of God’s
firstfruits, his voice must be silenced too in every living soul of man
everywhere. And if the serpent is to be
eradicated once and for all from God’s apprehended ones, it follows that he
must be eradicated finally from the life of all mankind. God is now swallowing up the death in us, in
spirit, soul, and body — and the blessed day will surely come when in all the
earth and throughout all God’s vast universe there shall be no more death in
any creature anywhere. Because the
people of God are scattered throughout the whole earth, and because all the
people of the entire earth must also, in due time, experience these very same
dealings of God, reveals the meaning of the scene: “Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive
the nations which are in the four
quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, the number of whom is as the sand of the
sea.” Oh, yes, it happens to all —
everywhere!
Let
me give you an illustration. History
records many great and bloody battles that have been fought between tribes,
ethnic groups, religious entities, nations, and empires. Most wars were fought due to the ambition of
some power-hungry leaders in order to bring others, along with their lands and
wealth, under their control, causing the untimely death of millions of young
men in their prime of life as well as the destruction of entire societies,
religions, cultures, and civilizations.
During the past one hundred or so years, mankind has experienced two World Wars, and countless
others in Korea, Vietnam, China,
Ireland, many African
nations, Central and South America, Iraq,
Afghanistan, and the list goes on and on even to our present day.
Ah,
in order to understand and grasp this great mystery of the final battle in the spiritual
realm, we must first discern and clearly comprehend the true causes of all carnal warfare, for the one typifies the other. I do not hesitate to tell you that the
underlying cause — the energizing principle and power — of all carnal warfare
is the flesh and the devil!
James put it so succinctly when by inspiration he wrote, “From
whence come wars and fightings among you?
Come they not hence, even of your
lust that war in your members? Ye lust,
and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war,
yet ye have not…” (James 4:1-2). That is
carnal warfare! But the apostle Paul speaks also of
spiritual warfare, and declares, “This I say then, Walk in the spirit, and ye
shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
For the flesh wareth against the spirit, and the spirit against the
flesh: for these are contrary the one to the other…” (Gal. 5:16-17). James and Paul
both point their fingers at the flesh, whereas
John tells us, “Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to
deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog,
to gather them together to battle…and they went
up on the breadth
of the earth, and compassed the camp of
the saints about…” (Rev. 20:7-9).
The question follows — How do you suppose warfare could be
abolished? Why, bless your heart, by
dealing with both the flesh and the devil — getting
rid of them! Remove the instigators and you eliminate the
problem! Get rid of the scheming
agitators and peace will ensue! My
beloved, it’s just as simple as that.
And that is exactly what this
twentieth chapter of the Revelation is all about!
So
what do we see in Gog and Magog, the nations that are in the four quarters of
the earth, the number of whom is as the sands of the sea? I find words and phrases totally inadequate
to portray the height and depth and length and breadth of the sublime scene John beholds in
transfixed wonder. Yet I know within my
spirit that it pictures the final battle within
each of us — where all the powers of the flesh, energized by the spirit of the
dragon, stand up in opposition to God’s truth, God’s redemption, God’s will,
God’s purpose, and God’s kingdom. It is
not time now for Satan to just be restrained
within us any longer, it is time for the serpent to be dealt with, once and
forever to be done away with! “And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp
of the saints about, and the beloved
city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast
into the lake of fire and brimstone” (Rev. 20:9-10). Man’s flesh and the serpent that crawls
therein is here visited by the all-consuming Holy Ghost Fire of God!
Punishment
by fire is a beneficent one. “Our GOD is
a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:29). The
basic purpose of this divine fire of God is to cleanse, purify, purge, temper, and change. It is to rid of impurities, of filth, of
undesirable elements and states of being.
There is no better way to deal with filth than to deal with it by
fire! The dealing of God by penal fire
leads back to the beginning of things.
The final work of God in this world will be the destruction of the
world order and system by penal fire. That will change all things! That will melt all the elements, so that no
man can tell you where his original grab was.
It will burn up the governments, institutions, systems, and fruitage of
the carnal mind. It will melt all the
customs, cultures, traditions, and practices of society and make of this earth
a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.
Every man’s work will eventually be tested by this fire. The fire will try every man’s work of what
sort it is. If you and I build into the
walls of our lives wood, hay, and stubble, that fire will find it out, and the
wall will come tumbling down. When God
turns on the HEAT, the BLAZING LIGHT OF HIS SPIRIT AND HIS WORD — some things
begin to change! The fire is never sent to
destroy the person, but to purify the nature, to purge out all that hinders and
separates him from his God, to consume the pride, arrogance, hostility,
defiance, and rebellion of the flesh and the carnal mind, that he might then be wooed and drawn by the Holy
Spirit unto the Father of spirits and live.
The
simple truth of the matter is this. The lake of fire and brimstone signifies a
fire burning with brimstone. The word
“brimstone” is simply another word for “sulphur” and defines the character of
the fire. The Greek word theion translated “brimstone” is exactly
the same word theion which means
“divine.” The reason this is true in the
original Greek language of the New Testament is that sulphur was sacred to the
deity among the ancient Greeks; and was used to fumigate, to purify, and to
cleanse and consecrate to the deity; for this purpose they burned it in their
incense. In Homer’s Iliad (16:228), one is spoken of as purifying a goblet with fire and
brimstone. The verb derived from theion is theioo, which means to hallow, to make divine, or to consecrate to
a god. Thus, a “lake of fire and
brimstone” would mean a “lake of divine purification.” Divine purification and divine consecration
are the plain meaning in ancient Greek.
More
than three centuries ago when the Black
Plague swept through London, England, more
than 68,000 men, women, and children were sickened with the putrid fever,
suffered nameless agonies, passed into delirium, sometimes with convulsions,
and then died. Before the end of the
terrible nightmare of anguish and death, what was thought to be an even greater
tragedy occurred. The city caught fire,
the whole heavens were ablaze as the Great Fire destroyed more than 13,200
homes and 89 churches. Most of the city,
which was built largely of wood, lay in ashes.
Wonder of wonders! As soon as the
last dying embers cooled and the smoke cleared, the inhabitants of the city
discovered that the Plague had been stayed!
Not another person died of the epidemic.
The Plague never
returned. The fire had killed the bacteria-carrying
fleas and rats that caused the Plague.
It took a fire to do it! Fire is
a great cleanser, purifier, and changer. Thank
God for His Fire! All that is within us
that bears the nature of the serpent nature will be devoured. When the work is complete in us, the one who
has been thrusting us through, our adversary, will be thrown into the lake of
fire and brimstone and thus be transformed and caused to become a vessel of
honor rather than dishonor (Rom.
11:36; Col. 1:16-20). By His brimstone
God will test the transformation of the devil, as well as our beast nature, and
the false prophet which speaks within us, using the touchstone until it tests
out as pure gold. Aren’t you glad!
To
be continued… J. PRESTON EBY
