After the 1000 years are up in the Millennium Kingdom, two additional things must happen before we get our new heaven and new earth. These two events will seal the fate of Satan and all the unsaved people who have ever lived once and for all.

This first event is almost unbelievable. When Jesus comes back for the second time to set up the Millennium Kingdom for a thousand years, the Bible tells us that Satan is chained up in the bottomless pit during those thousand years. He will no longer be free to torment or tempt humans during the Millennium Kingdom. However, after the thousand years are up in the Millennium Kingdom, Satan is let loose for one last final time to come upon our earth to try and cause more trouble.

The original King James version tells us that Satan will be let loose for a "little season." The New King James version says he will be let lose for a "little while." The Bible does not tell us how many years Satan will be allowed to run free again. All that we can surmise from the above words is that he will only be free for a "short time." That could be 5 years, 10 years or 50 years if not longer.

As soon as he is released from the bottomless pit, Satan will waste no time in doing what he does best. The Bible says that he will go out to deceive the nations once again. He will be allowed to literally go to the 4 corners of the globe to get as many people under his reign again to do his evil biddings. The Bible says he will get all of these people who are going to rebel against God from the Millennium Kingdom, and get them to surround the camps of the saints and the beloved city, which is probably Jerusalem, and try to get them to attack God's people and city.

However, the Bible seems to tell us that they won't even get to the point of being able to actually launch any type of attack against Jerusalem or any of God's people. They get to the point where they are surrounding Jerusalem, but before they can even attack, God Himself will literally "devour them" by sending "fire from heaven." God will take them out right there on the spot! There will be no physical battles like there will be in the battle of Armageddon. No blood will be spilled with the passing of this event. And then the Bible tells us that Satan will then be thrown into the Lake of Fire and Brimstone where the Antichrist and False Prophet had been thrown in earlier at the beginning of the Millennium Kingdom. Once this is done, the Bible says that they will remain in this place forever and ever! It says that they will be tormented day and night forever and ever in this place. We will never hear from the Devil again. God will have finally taken out this blasphemous creature from His sight for all of eternity!!

If we have just had perfect peace for a thousand years in the Millennium Kingdom, why would God allow the devil to be set free to cause one more round of trouble? Here is my opinion as to why.

In the Millennium Kingdom, humans will still be procreating and giving birth to children. These children will be raised up to learn about God and Jesus and all of Their ways. They will have never known "demonic temptation" since Satan will have been chained up and out of their sight during the Millennium Kingdom.

If Satan is let loose and manages to gather a certain amount of people to try and attack Jerusalem, that means that some of these "grown up children" are going to rebel and go against God Almighty Himself in this last event. The fact that Satan will be able to easily dupe them into doing this tells me that some of these people were restless and not totally committed to serving God in the Millennium Kingdom. Otherwise, they would not be so easily tempted by Satan to commit this one last final act of rebellion against God's people and the city of Jerusalem.

I believe that the main reason God will let Satan loose for one more time is to prune out some of these bad people who won't stay loyal and committed to Him. These people will not be able to really start any trouble against God in the Millennium Kingdom because Satan is not around yet, people no longer war with one another, and we will have perfect law and order in this new environment.

I believe God will set these people up. He'll allow Satan to roam free again and tempt these people into going against God and His people. And right at the point that these rebellious ones get ready to encircle Jerusalem to attack it, God will literally destroy them right there on the spot.

What this tells us is that there will be more people who will still rebel and go against God - even in the most perfect God environment imaginable! These people will be born into and raised up in this Millennium Kingdom without the bad influence of demons, Satan and any "bad people" since God has already had them thrown into Hades for the length of the Millennium Kingdom. These people will also be raised up being taught who the real God is and about all of His awesome ways. There will be no other "gods" or false religions to confuse them.

And even in the most perfect scenario imaginable, there is obviously going to be a group of these people who will still choose to rebel against God and try to overthrow Him by attacking His city of Jerusalem.

When you first examine all of the above - you ask yourself, how could a group of humans be so stupid to think they can overthrow or go against God Himself - especially since they have probably been taught the entire history of our world during the Millennium Kingdom? How could these people go against God when raised up in the most perfect God environment imaginable?

To answer that, all you have to do is look at what happened to Satan and all of the fallen angels. They were all living up in heaven with God - with no negative influences per se until Satan started to malfunction through pride and conceit. They too were living in the most perfect God environment imaginable and a whole bunch of them - possibly up to one-third of them, decided with their own free will, to rebel and go against God Himself in this perfect heavenly environment.

Just as a certain of amount of angels decided to rebel and go against God in a perfect environment in heaven, so too are a certain number of humans going to do the exact same thing. And again, God will allow Satan to be the one to tempt and cause these rebellious ones to fall. Just like it was Satan who probably tempted and caused all the other fallen angels to fall from grace in heaven. Just like it was Satan who tempted Adam and Eve to eat of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden.

Bottom line - God knows that there are going to be some people who will still go against Him - even in the perfect Millennium Kingdom. He is simply going to draw them out, expose them and then prune them out by allowing Satan to deceive them like he did with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

Then once that is accomplished, you will have nothing but "good apples" that will finally inherit God's best for all of humanity - THE NEW HEAVEN AND THE NEW EARTH.

Now here are the two main Bible verses that tell us all of the above.

The Scripture Verses

1. This first verse tells us that Satan will be let loose for a "little while" after he is released from the bottomless pit. "Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while." (Revelations 20:1-3)

2. This next verse will tells us what happens after he is released from the bottomless pit. "Now when the thousand years has 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, 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. And 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." (Revelations 20:7-10)

Now before God gives us our final reward with the new heaven and new earth, there is one more really bad event that must take place. It is called the Great White Throne Judgment. This event will determine the eternal fate for all the unsaved people that have ever lived. This event will discussed in the next article.

Article written by Michael Bradley of Bible Knowledge Ministries. Their website is a resource of Bible commentary and teaching. They currently have over 100 Bible articles. All free of charge.
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Copyright © 2005 by Michael Bradley. All Rights Reserved.