Question: Who do you think will be tempted when the devil is unleashed after 1,000 years?
V.J.
Dear V,
Before I answer this question, let me fill in some information to readers who may be unfamiliar with the 1,000-year edict.
The Saints Reign with Christ 1,000 Years
A time of tribulation and distress on the Earth will cause multitudes to seek God’s truth and call on His Name for salvation. At some point during this tribulation or judgement period, all who can be saved will be saved and no other person will submit to God and repent. God is so merciful that He makes sure all that all who will repent and seek Him is accomplished. It is then He will separate (remove) those righteous (whose names were written in the Lambs Book of Life) and translate them into glorified beings, uniting them with the resurrected dead in Christ. They will all live in a glorified, eternal state (a marriage of the eternal spirit and their new physical bodies) on the Mountain of God that comes down from Heaven. Many call this “the rapture.”
What follows on Earth is called the Battle of Armageddon. This is God’s ultimate showdown against the evil nations that follow a false Messiah who dare to wage war against God, His Messiah and Jerusalem. This war will be a total loss for the armies of the world and their false leader, however there will be many (unrighteous people) still left in the nations that were not present at the actual Battle.
And the Lord will be King over all the earth. On that day the Lord will be one and his name one. 12 And this shall be the plague with which the Lord will strike all the peoples that wage war against Jerusalem: their flesh will rot while they are still standing on their feet, their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths (Zech. 14: 9,12 ESV).
Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. 5 But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with Him a thousand years (Revelations 20:4-6 NKJV).
At this time, Satan (who embodied a proclaimed one-world Messiah) and his false prophet are bound from operating and tempting man for 1,000 years.
Satan Bound 1,000 Years
In the book of Revelation, we see an angel of the Lord throw Satan into the Abyss of hell during the 1,000-year reign of Christ.
Then I saw an angel coming down from Heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. 2 He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; 3 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 NKJV).
That said, there will (apparently) be people left in the nations who were not translated (raptured) at the sealing of the Book of the Lamb at the resurrection. These same ones were also not present at the Battle of Armageddon and were spared and kept alive during the Great Tribulation.
These people will continue to procreate and live their mortal lives, unlike the glorified Saints who will not reproduce (for they will be like the angels as they live in the Holy Jerusalem that will come down to unite with the physical Jerusalem). See Mark 12:25
The Word declares that those left in the nations will be required to go to Jerusalem during the Feast of Tabernacles to worship the Lord, or their nation will not receive rain. They will be taught the Lord’s ways as the Saints will carry out the command to teach the Word to all the earth from Tzion.
And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, on them there will be no rain. If the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall have no rain; they shall receive the plague with which the Lord strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles (Zech. 14:16-19 NKJV).
Those people who were not listed in the Lambs book of Life but survived God’s wrath in the nations will find that Yeshua is now their King. Having survived through a most astounding and terrifying time, most will be in a state of curiosity and wonder. They are now subjects of an Eternal Messiah and must learn the ways of His Torah and how to conduct their affairs according to His Laws. Some will come to a saving knowledge of the Messiah, and still others absolutely will not.
Many nations will come, saying, “Come on! Let’s go up to the LORD’s mountain, to the temple of Jacob’s God, so he can teach us his commands, and we can live by his laws.” For Zion will be the source of instruction; the LORD’s teachings will proceed from Jerusalem (Micah 4:2 NET).
On that day, the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his resting place will be glorious. 11 In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the surviving remnant of his people from Assyria, from Lower Egypt, from Upper Egypt, from Cush, from Elam, from Babylonia, from Hamath and from the islands of the Mediterranean (Isaiah11:10-11 NET).
And everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the LORD has said, even among the survivors whom the LORD calls (Joel 2:31 AMP).
Because God restores the Earth and its canopy of protective ozone and reinstates the blessing over all creation, the remnant of the people in the nations will live as long as the first generations of Adam. Many will live to 800 – 900 years old (or perhaps the whole 1,000 years of the Messiah’s reign). However, we can also postulate during this millennial reign, that there will still be a rebellious people that will refuse to honor God’s commands. Plagues and droughts (no rain) will be judgments on those mortal beings (and nations) that persist in selfish disobedience.
No child will die in infancy; everyone will live a very long life. Anyone a hundred years old will be considered young, and to die younger than that will be considered a curse (Isaiah 65:20 CEV).
After the 1,000-year reign
God will determine once more who are the ones who will not bow to His authority and receive Him as Messiah. After 1,000 years is over, Satan is released to tempt the mortal survivors now populating the earth to rebel against God and His Holy Ones. Fire will come down to consume them in their efforts. Then the Great White Throne Judgement will occur. The unrighteous dead will be resurrected at this time to receive their 2nd death. Those from the nations who have refused to submit to Yeshua, who instead were overcome with disdain for God and trusted in the deceiver, will also be judged with the devil into eternal separation from God.
Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison 8 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. 9 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. Revelation 20:7-9 NKJV
Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and Heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:11-15 NASB).
The answer to your question my friend, is actually encrypted in the parable Yeshua shared with His disciples:
“The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; 25 but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. 26 But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. 27 So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ 28 He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ 29 But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.” (Matthew 13:24-30 NKJV)
Our God for the very last time will separate the evil ones from the true followers. In this way all that is left is pure and holy. No evil, no deception, no immorality will be left in God’s Kingdom. He then creates a New Heaven and Earth, full of His Glory.
To learn more about this 1,000-year proclamation and how it ties into the seven angels and seven trumpets, read this month’s Focus from the Founder article titled, The Trumpets of Revelation.
