What Happens After Death Part 7

Satan's End

The final chapters of the Bible are solemn, exciting and joyfully triumphant. Good triumphs, but first the source of all evil has to be banished for ever. That is Satan and his two false religions. Revelation 20:10: 'Then the devil who had deceived them will be thrown into the lake of fire burning with sulphur where the Creature and the False Prophet are.' Notice that the devil was the great deceiver to the end. But the trouble is, mankind wants to be deceived and therefore is very gullible.

Jesus had said earlier in Matthew 25:41 that the devil and his fallen angels would be thrown into this everlasting fire and that it had been prepared for them. Unfortunately, he will take with him all who did not become the sheep of the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ. But please notice that the chapter in Revelation which describes the lake of fire says that everyone will be judged according to their works whether they be good or bad. So it will be a just judgement and nobody will be able to say that they have been treated unfairly. But only those who've had their sins forgiven will enter heaven. No one will be allowed into heaven it says whose mind or tongue is filthy or who is immoral or trades in prostitution, or is a murderer or makes lies or worships idols, unless Jesus has changed their lives and forgiven them. These are the words used in chapters 20 and 21:

I saw a great white throne and the one who sat upon it, from whose face the earth and universe speeded away . . . and I saw the dead, great and small, standing before God, and the recording books were opened, including the book of life, and the dead were judged according to the things written in the books, each according to the deeds they had done, whether good or bad.

Before Satan's final end, he will have been chained in the bottomless pit for 1,000 years. That was so that he would not deceive the nations any more until the end of the 1,000 years. Those who think that this millennium comes before the coming of Christ, must ask themselves whether the last 1,000 years has been completely free from Satan's deceptions. The answer is surely no. Did not Jesus say that there would be false prophets and false Christs who would deceive many before he returned.

Notice, too, that the two major false religions in the book of Revelation 19:20 were active before the millennium starts. At the end of the millennium the devil joins them in the lake of fire.

What are those two false religious systems? They are described as the beast and the false prophet. Jesus described them in Matthew 24:26 as the false Christ in the inner rooms and the prophet of the desert to whom pilgrimages are made into the desert.

These deceptions will be destroyed in two stages according to Daniel 7:26 and 1 Thessalonians 2:8-12. First, gradually by the Word of the Lord, the Bible. Radio and television are bringing this worldwide. Then, suddenly at the second coming of Christ so that the nations will not be deceived any more during the 1,000 years which follow.

The Old Testament prophets say that when those deceptions of the devil are abolished, the veil of blindness over all nations will be removed. Here are Isaiah's words in 25:7 about that day:

'The Lord will remove the blindness which covers all peoples, the veil which is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever.' 2 Corinthians chapter 4 says: 'If our gospel is veiled it is veiled to those who are lost. Satan has blinded the minds of those who don't believe.'

According to Isaiah chapter 14 the nations will say to Satan, 'So you were the cause of all the trouble.'

What an eye-opener that will be. But first let God open your eyes to the truth now.

Peter's Glimpse of Glory

What stands out in your memory above anything else?