SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/10/2015
10:34 AM
My Worship Time
Focus: The
Removal of Satan PT-1
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
20:1-3
Message of the
verses: “1 Then I saw an angel
coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his
hand. 2 And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil
and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; 3 and he threw him into the
abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he would not deceive the
nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; after these things
he must be released for a short time.”
As I was reading this passage this morning the thought
came to me as to what the key looked like that the angel had, wondering how big
it was, or perhaps what it may have said on the key. It could have said something like “this is
the key to hell” and in an instant we see that Satan was put into the lake of
fire and would remain there for one thousand years while the Lord Jesus Christ
ruled from David’s throne in the city of Jerusalem.
This was the first priority of the King, which is putting
Satan in the lake of fire. The following
are some verses that speak of Satan. 2
Cor. 4:4: in whose case the
god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they
might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image
of God.” Ephesians 2:2: “in which you
formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the
air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.” Now we see in these titles of Satan that once
he is removed that there will be a marked difference for those who are now
living on planet earth. Now we also know
that when the Lord Jesus Christ comes back to planet earth that He will have
the judgment of the sheep and the goats, and the goats will then be put into
the lake of fire too, leaving only the believers who have survived the
Tribulation period to begin to repopulate the earth. Part of the goats will be the ringleaders the
Antichrist and the false prophet, as they too will be thrown alive into the
lake of fire. Now when all of this
happens there will no more be any enemies of God on planet earth. However I have to say as we look later on in
this chapter we will see that after the thousand years are complete that Satan
will be let out and that there will be a large group of unbelievers who will
look forward to Satan’s return and they will begin a short war, something we
will look at later on. My point is that
the things that most people believe causes bad behavior are all gone during the
millennial reign of Christ and yet many people will chose not to believe that
they have a need to be saved from their sins.
I remember Dr. Wiersbe stating that the heart of every problem is the
problem of the heart and that pretty much sums it up for those who do not
believe during the millennial kingdom.
John MacArthur states that we see the phrase “Then I saw”
at the beginning of this chapter and this phrase in the Greek is kia eidon and he writes that this “indicates
chronological progression. The location
of this passage in the chronological flow of Revelation is consistent with the
premillennial view of the kingdom. After
the Tribulation (chaps. 6-19) Christ will return (19:11-21) and set up His
kingdom (20:1-10), which will be followed by the new heavens and the new earth
(21:1). Thus the millennial kingdom
comes after Christ’s second coming but before the establishing of the new
heavens and the new earth.
Amillennialists Anthony Hoekema has to acknowledge that, taken at face
value, the chronology of Revelation supports premillennialism. He writes:
‘Let us assume, for example, that the book of Revelation is to be
interpreted in an exclusively futuristic sense…Let us further assume that what
is presented in Revelation 20 must necessarily follow, in chronological order,
what was described in chapter 19. We are
then virtually compelled to believe that the thousand-year reign depicted in
20:4 must come after the return of Christ described in 19:11.’” I have stated before in earlier SD’s that I
have always believed in the premillennial view, and I could go so far as to say
that I don’t think it is a view, but the truth and so I will not write any more
at this time about this since I believe it is the truth that Scripture teaches.
We don’t really know who the angel is that has the key to
put Satan into the lake of fire, but as we compare Scripture with Scripture we
can see that perhaps this is Michael the archangel who we can see from the book
of Daniel is the great adversary of Satan, but first we look at Revelation 12:7
“And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon.
The dragon and his angels waged war.”
Now we can compare Daniel 10:13, 21; 12:1 and also Jude 9: “13
"But the prince of the kingdom of Persia was withstanding me for
twenty-one days; then behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help
me, for I had been left there with the kings of Persia.” “21 “However, I will tell you what is
inscribed in the writing of truth. Yet there is no one who stands firmly with
me against these forces except Michael your prince.” “1 “Now at that time Michael, the great
prince who stands guard over the sons of your people, will arise. And there
will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation
until that time; and at that time your people, everyone who is found written in
the book, will be rescued.” “9 But Michael the archangel, when he disputed
with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce
against him a railing judgment, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!"” We don’t know for sure who he is, but we do
know that he has great power and he is sent to the earth for one specific
agenda, and that is to seize Satan for the total one thousand years of the
millennial kingdom as he seals Satan in the abyss.
John MacArthur writes “Abussos (abyss) appears seven times in Revelation (cf. 9:1, 2, 11;
11:7; 17:8), always in reference to the temporary place of incarceration for
certain demons. The abyss is not their
final place of punishment; the lake of fire is (Matt. 25:41).” (So disregard
when I wrote above that Satan would go to the lake of fire.) “Nevertheless it is a place of torment to
which the demons fear to be sent (Luke 8:31).
The prisoners in the abyss are among the most vile and evil of all
demons and include the ‘spirits now in prison, who once were disobedient, when
the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah’ (1 Pet. 3:19-20).”
We will talk about the key in our next SD.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: Seeing the truth that
one day Satan will be bound is something that I am happy to understand. I don’t think people realize how much damage
that Satan is doing on planet earth as this time, for we know that Satan is the
enemy of Israel and all we have to do is look at what is going on in the Middle
East to realize that Satan is behind all of this, but you never hear about it
in this way.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To remember that the battle rages on all of
the time and I need to keep my Spiritual Armor in place all of the time.
Answer to
yesterday’s Bible question: “Christ
Jesus” (Romans 8:1).
Today’s Bible
question: “Whose trump is mentioned in 1
Thessalonians 4:16-17?”
Answer in our
next SD. 10/10/2015 11:21 AM
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