Question
I was hoping to ask you a question about Revelation 20 as it pertains to current events. If you are willing, my question for you follows the text. If not, I will not be upset with you. This is not a test for you. I actually am hoping you might be able to enlighten me a little on this particular Scripture.
My thoughts: It appears to me that the events contained herein are in reference to the period of time after Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, and maybe even after the destruction of Jerusalem. I say that because it speaks of being priests of God and of Christ, which certainly is talking about Christians. And they shall reign with Him a thousand years. At the beginning of that reign, Scripture speaks of Satan being bound a thousand years, but then he must be released for a little while. If God had meant 10 thousand years or more, it seems He would have said, “…bound him for ten thousand years.” But, it doesn’t say that. It says, “…a thousand years.” No one knows exactly when that “thousand year” period of time will end, or ended. I’m inclined to speculate that it has already ended. When? I’m not sure. Perhaps when Darwin began teaching that evolution was true and God was not…and people began to believe him. Or, maybe shortly before work began on nuclear weapons. Either way, if the thousand year period has indeed ended, then all that’s left is for us to witness that Gog and Magog are gathering to battle and that they are spreading out upon the breadth of the earth and will surround the camp of the saints and the beloved city.
Here is a problem. We normally read this and think that Gog and Magog are going up to battle against the saints. What if they are not? What if instead they are going up to battle one another? Well, where does that leave the part about surrounding the saints? Only here: If Gog and Magog are planning to have a nuclear war, then it means that no one on earth will survive. In that sense, the saints have certainly, in a matter of speaking, been surrounded just as surely as if the battle was against them, personally. If the war begins between nuclear powers, it means that all Christians everywhere will die and all work of the church will cease. If it gets to that point where a war is inevitable and the first nuclear missile that will begin the destruction of earth is on the verge of being fired, I believe then that “fire will come down from God out of heaven and devour them”, and stop the war before it begins. However, it will also mark the end of the world, but with God bringing it to a close. If He did not stop the war at that precise moment, it would certainly begin and all Christians (and all mankind) everywhere would die.
Todays events: We are today witnessing events all over the earth, where it seems that everyone in government has gone completely insane. I can’t imagine things being any worse than they are. If Satan is not now “released for a little while”, then how much worse could it be later when he IS released!? I believe he has been released. The United States is setting up missile systems everywhere all over the earth. They are now pointing into Russia from all over the middle east, especially Romania and Poland. The US is also setting up missiles pointing into China from South Korea and Japan. The US is doing their best to start wars with both, which will certainly finish as nuclear. The US is trying to start a war with Iran and threatening them. Israel has gone completely rogue and is threatening everyone everywhere, not to even mention their mass gynocide of the Palestinians. The US has convinced many people that they are planning a nuclear “preventive attack” on North Korea in February during the Olympics in South Korea. If that happens, there will be millions of dead people initially, not even counting the millions to follow later. If North Korea succeeds in retaliating against the US, there will be even more. And, there are 25 nuclear power stations in South Korea. Who will manage those and shut them down if nearly everyone in South Korea is also dead?
Mr. Sharp, I know you will think I’m crazy, but I have the same opinion about things as many reputable people. Paul Craig Roberts, former Asst Sec. of Treasury under President Reagan believes as I do. So do Russian expert Stephen Cohen, journalist Finnian Cunningham and many others. I don’t live in the United States, as I wrote to you earlier. I live in Spain and I’ve been outside the propaganda umbrella of the US for over 14 years now. Everyone outside the US knows that the government of the US is the most evil government running the most evil empire that the world has ever known. There is a group of people in charge of the government known as “Neocons”. They took over the government during the time of President Bush, and they’ve been calling the shots ever since. They are dead set on, literally, ruling the world. They have convinced themselves that the US can win a nuclear war against Russia and China! And, they appear to be on a course from which they refuse to turn back, or even to deviate. Mr. Sharp, I believe the church is almost completely surrounded even as we speak. No, I’m not crazy. But, it’s no secret that we are not far from a full blown nuclear war with Russia and China. President Putin is not a “Hitler” or a “warmonger”. I’ve listened to all his speeches and talks and read a lot about him. He’s a good man. Perhaps not a Christian, but a good moral man nevertheless. He’s the only reason we have not had a nuclear war so far.
Thanks for listening and, am I wrong about the “surrounding of the camp of the saints”?
Answer
Thank you for your question. I will do my best to give you a correct answer from the Scriptures.
You begin your comments by saying, “I’m inclined to speculate….” Speculation about Scripture is a dangerous practice. “If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God” (1 Peter 4:11).
The book of Revelation was “signified.” (Revelation 1:1) This word means “to indicate by a sign” (William D. Mounce, Mounce’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words. 1268). It identifies the language of the book as symbolic, figurative.
Often it is physically absurd for the language of Revelation to be literal. John speaks of a “great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads” whose “tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth” (Revelation 12:3-4). How could a literal seven-headed dragon with a tail that measured billions of light years in length throw literal stars, most of which are millions of times larger than the earth, to the literal earth? No reasonable person can contend this is literal language.
Sometimes a literal application of the book plainly violates clear teaching from other Scripture. John pictures “the Lamb” (a literal lamb?) fighting in carnal warfare (Revelation 17:14; 19:11-16), but Jesus taught that His kingdom is not upheld by armed might (John 18:36). Is Revelation figurative, or does John contradict his own account of Jesus’ words?
Revelation is the sole New Testament representative of a class of literature called “apocalyptic.” Three Old Testament books fit this category (Ezekiel, Daniel, Zechariah), and several uninspired books written during the period of silence between Malachi and Matthew are of this genre. Jesus’ prophecy of the destruction of national Israel is also apocalyptic (Matthew 24; Mark 13; Luke 21).
The book itself asserts in seven passages that its prophecies were soon to be fulfilled and the coming of Christ was to take place shortly after it was written (Revelation 1:1, 3; 3:11; 22:6-7, 10, 12, 20). The prophecies of the book began to be fulfilled, and in one sense Jesus came, in the very generation to which John wrote.
“Gog and “Magog” are those who surround the camp of the saints (Revelation 20:8). These two terms are found in Ezekiel chapters 37 and 38. There was a “Magog” who was a son of Japheth, one of the sons of Noah (Genesis 10:2; 1 Chronicles 1:5), and “Gog” is “of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal” (Ezekiel 38:2-3). They were to come from the “far north” against Israel (Ezekiel 38:15; 39:2). Invaders, such as Assyria and Babylon, characteristically came from the north against Israel. Ezekiel stated that the Lord had prophesied against Gog and Magog “in the former prophets” (Ezekiel 38:17). But there is no mention of either Gog or Magog by any prophet in the Old Testament books of the prophets except Ezekiel. “Gog” and “Magog” represent all the unbelieving enemies of the people of the Lord of every generation. They surround and persecute the saints, and the Lord will destroy them.
Nor are the “thousand years” and “little while” of Revelation 20:1-7 literal. Christ began to reign after His ascension back to the Father (Daniel 7:13-14; Acts 2:29-31; Colossians 1:13; Revelation 1:9) and will continue to reign until His return (1 Corinthians 15:22-24).
According to Revelation 20:1-7, those who reign with Christ are “the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God” (Revelation 20:4). The ones reigning are the souls of beheaded people. Unless your head has been cut off you’re cut out of the thousand years reign, if it is literal.
The thousand years is symbolic of great power, power that is victorious over death. The saints shall be raised to eternal life (1 Peter 1:3-5). The “little while” is small power. All Satan can do is tempt us through His deception and persecution (Ephesians 6:11; 1 John 2:15-17; 1 Peter 5:8).
Modern political issues are not directly related to the book of Revelation, but the spiritual principles of the book apply to every generation.
