Little Season (3) - Fire from Heaven

The devil will succeed in building support, but he will not achieve his objective.

But fire came down from heaven and devoured them (Rev 20:9).

This fire from heaven is not literal. The event that follows the fire is the last judgment, so it must be a reference to the appearance of Jesus (Rev 20:11-15). This is confirmed in Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians.

When the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels, he will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus (2 Thes 1:7-8).

The blazing fire is the second coming.

Then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming/parousia (2 Thes 2:9).

The Man of Lawlessness and his followers will be destroyed by the splendour of Jesus appearance.

Judgment usually comes to produce repentance, but this time there is no hope of repentance, because the fate of every person on earth will be sealed. Each one will go to the last judgment and receive the consequences of his choices. The work of redemption will be complete and the Book of Life will be closed, forever. We should not speak of the appearance of Jesus lightly, as the fate of many people will be sealed with a certainty that is equalled only be death.

Jesus appearance marks the end of the Little Season and the end of history.

Little Season (2) - Devil Unbound

The Kingdom of God will continue until God’s purposes are complete and the full numbers of people have come to faith. When all his promises and purposes on earth have been fulfilled, he will set in train the series of events that bring the Kingdom age to a close. The devil and forces will be released for one last time.

When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison (Rev 20:7).

He does not escape, but is released by the Holy Spirit to achieve a divine purpose.

God demonstrates his infinite mercy by giving Satan him one last chance to redeem himself. He was created by God for a special purpose, but fell from his exalted position and became the enemy of good. Despite the terrible harm Satan has done to the world, God will give him one last chance to fulfil his calling before the end of the age. God is so gracious that he gives the devil an opportunity to do the right thing. He will never be able to accuse God of not giving him a chance to learn from his mistakes.

The devil will not take the opportunity given to him, but will go out to do evil by getting control of the nations again.

He will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth—Gog and Magog—and to gather them for battle. In number, they are like the sand on the seashore (Rev 20:8).

To score a victory over Jesus, he will stir up rebellion among the nations. He is not creative, so he will use the same lies about God that he used at the beginning. People all over the world to the “four corners of the earth” will join this rebellion. “Gog and Magog” is a reference to the bulk of the nations rebelling against God.

People all over the world will begin to grumble against the government of God. They will spread lies about the Christian influence in society in an attempt to undermine the purified the church.

They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God’s people, the city he loves (Rev 20:9).

This is not a literal war. The camp of God’s people represents all the people in the world who have chosen to follow Jesus. The beloved city is used Revelation to represent the Kingdom of God. Gog and Magog represent worldwide
opposition to God. Those who come under the devils power will begin to persecute the church.
Persecution will be a new experience for the Christians who live in this season. Most will be unprepared. Those who do not understand that God has released the devil will be shocked by the rapid deterioration of the spiritual climate. Fortunately, this season of rebellion will be quite brief. It is described as a “short time”.

After that, he must be set free for a short time(Rev 20:3)

During the Kingdom season, memory of the evil that prevailed during the Times of the Gentiles will grow dim. Some Christians will find it hard to believe that Satan and his angels truly evil. Such evil will seem impossible to people who are living in a golden age. Some will consider that Satan and his followers have been treated harshly by God.

He will give the devil a brief time at the end of history to reveal his true character to. This season when he is allowed to deceive the nations once more will give the people of the world a brief taste of the horrors of evil. After this experience, it will be obvious that the devil and his followers deserve their fate (Rev 20:10).

Little Season (1) - Satan was Bound

The season ushered by the Man of Lawlessness is called the "little season" or "short Time" The passage that describes this season is not well understood.

And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain. He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time (Rev 20:1-3).

The binding of the devil is not a future event as most Christians assume, because the Devil was totally defeated by Jesus’ victory on the cross.

Having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross (Col 2:15).

Jesus has already done everything that has to be done to destroy the Devil’s power He proved this by casting out demons wherever he went (Matt 12:29). However, since he ascended into heaven, Jesus can only work on earth through his body. He won a major judicial victory on the cross, but it must be enforced on earth by the Holy Spirit working through the church. Jesus challenged his disciples to exercise this authority as long as they remained on earth.

Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven (Matt 18:18).

Jesus repeated this statement to stress that its importance (Matt 16:9). The devil works in the spiritual realm, but God’s people on earth have authority to bind everything every evil power in that realm.

During the Times of the Gentiles, the church does not use this authority very effectively, so the devil continues to operate as though he had never been bound. As Christians suffer for the gospel during the Times of Distress, they will get a new revelation of the defeat of the devil and their power to bind him. The Kingdom of God will come to fulfilment when the Church gets to grips with this authority and binds him completely. Throughout the Times of the Kingdom, the church will be on the top of its game and ensure that he is bound and powerless.

John said that the devil is bound for a thousand years (Rev 20:3). This is not a literal thousand years. A thousand equals ten to the power of three. Ten represents completeness and three is perfection, so a thousand equals perfect completeness. The thousand years describes the season when the Kingdom of God has perfect fulfilment. The time may last for much longer than a thousand of years, but throughout that time, the Devil is totally bound.