Parallel Powers (14) Satan’s Fate

Satan was bound by the cross. He was thrown into the Abyss, but he was not let out with the other spiritual powers of evil that escaped.

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 20:3)

When the time of the Kingdom is fulfilled, he will set be set free for a little season at the end of the age. He will gather the remaining evil spirits for a final rebellion against God.

When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison and 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. They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God’s people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them (Rev 20:7-9).

Satan will gather a horde of evil spirits for battle, but they will be destroyed by God’s power.

The devil will be thrown into the fiery lake of burning sulphur

And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulphur for ever and ever, where the beast and the false prophet shall be being tormented day and night (Rev 20:10).

The devil will be tormented with this other pair of powerful spirits who have been held there during the age of the kingdom.

Many other evil spirits will be there too.

Yet the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, the sorcerers, the idolaters and all the false ones—part of them in the fiery lake of burning sulphur, which is a second death (Rev 21:8).

These spirits might be the ones who are tormenting the big-name spirits.

The bible does not really tell us what happens to this remnant of the spiritual powers of evil, but John gives a clue. He says that the fiery lake of burning sulphur is “a second death”. He does not use the definite article, so this is not the second death. The second death is final destruction. However, the fiery lake of burning sulphur is a second death. John is also suggesting it becomes a final destruction.

In Revelation 22:1-5, John describes the final reality. There is a river of life, but no fiery lake of burning sulphur. This suggests that God has destroyed it, an along with the remnant of the spiritual powers of evil.

They will not be forgotten. John says,

The smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever (Rev 14:11).

Smoke hangs around long after the fire has gone. The memory of the Satan, the beast, the false prophet will survive into eternity as a reminder of what happens when free people rebel against God.

Parallel Powers (13) Spirits Destroyed

The other spiritual kings and generals and their spiritual hierarchies are destroyed. John says that they are destroyed by the sword that comes out of Jesus mouth.

The rest were killed with the sword coming out of the mouth of the rider on the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh (Rev 19:21).

The sword is the word of God. The spiritual powers of evil were created by a word from God’s mouth as part of the creation of the world. These ruler spirits who are expert in controlling government and fighting wars will be destroyed by a word spoken by Jesus.

Evil spirits love the destruction of war. Many governing spirits will have gathered so they can expand their power, but many ordinary spirits show up because they love the blood and death that war creates. They are the ones that John called the birds of the air (Luke 8:5,11). When the power spirits are killed, they gorge on their power. John described this as a “supper”.

This spiritual battle will be an enormous victory for God, because the destruction of the ruling spirits will dramatically weaken the strength of the spiritual powers of evil. This is a significant change in the balance of power on earth.

The total number of evil spirits in existence might be reduced to a quarter of what they have been. A third of angels fell, so their number was about half the number of the good angels. The destruction of this great battle will mean the angels outnumber them at least ten to one.
With a large population of people on earth, the remaining evil spirits will be spread very thin and find it harder to harass God’s people. This victory will bring a period of peace and blessing on earth.

All the spirits that have skills in controlling governments and armies will be gone. This will dramatically weaken the power of human government’s. The collapse of human governments will open the way for the Government of God

How does this happen? The prophets will be the key. In Revelation 10, John described a powerful prophetic voice that emerges in the church. These prophets will pronounce declarative prayers against the spiritual powers of evil, which will release the Holy Spirit and the angelic armies. This massive spiritual power will destroy the enemies of God.

Parallel Powers (11) Who Captures

The answer to who captures is now obvious. The beast and the false prophet were captured by other evil spirits. These spirits threw them into the lake of fiery lake of burning sulphur.

In the beginning, the spiritual powers of evil rebelled against God. That set in train a series of events that released destruction and evil on God’s good earth. Since then they have always had rebellion in their hearts.

They gather for the great spiritual battle and attack the beast and the false prophet, because they believed that these spiritual powers had made a serious mistake. They rebel against them and capture them.

We often assume that spiritual powers of evil are united in a common purpose. That is not true. Wars and jockeying for power are common in the kingdom of darkness. The strongest spirits hold power, but other are always looking for opportunities to usurp their powers. The big spiritual battle was a rebellion against the beast and the false prophet.

Many evil spirits rebel against the powerful spirits that had controlled them. These rebellious spirits throw these big-name spirits into the fiery lake of burning sulphur and organise for them to be tormented.

Parallel Powers (10) The Fiery Lake of Burning Sulphur

The key is understanding that there are two lakes in the book of Revelation.

• The lake of fire
• The fiery lake of burning sulphur

The lake of fire is the second death. Hades and death were thrown into this lake. Their role was finished, so the lake of fire is permanent destruction. This lake is the destination of the people whose names are not written in Jesus’ book of life. For them it was annihilation (Rev 20:14-15). This fire burns purely, so it is the work of God.

The destination of the beast and the false prophet is different. They go into a lake of burning sulphur. Sulphur is often caused brimstone. It eats away at flesh and destroys it slowly. It was often used in rubbish dumps to destroy organic material.

In Revelation, sulphur is associated with the powers of evil. The evil spirit that came out of the Abyss spat out fire and sulphur (Rev 9:17-18). Sulphur stinks, which also reminds us of evil.

The fiery lake of burning sulphur is a place of torment (Rev 20:10). The Beast and the false prophet are tormented day and night. It is a place set up by the spiritual powers of evil as an imitation of the real thing, but with an evil twist. Torment replaces annihilation. The powers of evil set it up so they can torment other spirits that have betrayed them.

Christians who believe in eternal conscious torment of those who reject the gospel have confused the two lakes. God allows people who have rejected the gospel to be destroyed, if they do not want to be with him. He does not torment people. That is what the evil spirits do.

Parallel Powers (9) Big Spiritual Battle

Several multi-national armies gather for war in Israel, where the beast will already be in control. Other nations that hate his power and control will gather to attack the beast. This is what will happen on earth, but John saw what will happen in the spiritual realms.

John saw Jesus coming with the armies of heaven.

I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war. The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean (Rev 19:11,14).

Jesus is motivated by wrath.

He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God (Rev 19:15).

Much of the wrath in scripture is the work of a spiritual leader called Wrath, but this is real wrath. However, it is directed against the spiritual powers of evil, not the people on the earth.

John also saw the spiritual kings and their retainers gather together with all the spiritual generals and their subordinates. All the ruling spirits from all over the world will gather together for a spiritual battle. They see this battle as an opportunity to expand their power on earth, but it is actually a trap, because Jesus and his angels are prepared for them.

I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to wage war against the rider on the horse and his army. But the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who had performed the signs on its behalf. With these signs, he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulphur (Rev 19:19-21).

The outcome was dramatic, but inevitable. The beast and the false prophet are captured. These are the ruling spirits that came out of the Abyss. They are captured and thrown into fiery lake of burning sulphur.

Two questions are important here.

• Who captured them?
• Where were they thrown?

I will answer the second question first in the next post.

Parallel Power (8) The Great Battle

The Revelation of John culminates in a great battle. This is linked to wars between armies on earth, but that is just a sideshow. The real battle takes place in the spiritual realms and Jesus achieves a great victory. John saw into heaven.

I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following him (Rev 19:11-14).

John saw things that took place in the spiritual realms. Jesus was leading the armies of heaven. These are the hosts of angels that love to do his will. They are supported by the prayers of the saints on earth. John was told that Jesus is King of Kings and Lord of Lords (Rev 19:16).

An angel cried out in a loud voice to call the evil ruler spirits to battle.

I saw an angel standing in the sun, who cried in a loud voice to all the birds flying in midair, “Come, gather together for the great supper of God, so that you may eat the flesh of kings, generals, and the mighty, of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, great and small (Rev 19:17-18).

The kings, generals and mighty men with their armies are not human kings and armies. They are the parallel spiritual powers that control the governments, nations and armies of men. These spiritual kings and generals control large hosts of evil spirits. They stop fighting against each other and come together to fight against Jesus.

The birds of the air represent ordinary garden variety evil spirits. These are spirits attached to particular sins, rather than to rulers and nations. They know a battle was coming and they hope to gain a position of power in the spiritual realm, when other more powerful spirits fall.
The gathering of the spiritual kings and generals is described in several places in Revelation.

When the sixth trumpet was sounded, angels were released to gather armies near the Euphrates area in the Middle East (Rev 9:13-16). This river runs through modern Iraq and Syria. Human armies will gather in this place, but they are not so important. The armies that John saw being gathered were spiritual (Rev 9:17-10). They were destructive spiritual powers.

The same gathering of spiritual powers was described in the sixth bowl of wrath.

The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty (Rev 16:12-14).

Human armies gather near Israel to fight, but the real battle is in the spiritual realms. The human armies will be relatively small, compared with the vast host of evil spirits gather for the battle on the great day of God. The beast and the false prophet are leading spiritual powers of evil.

The background to these events is described in Times and Seasons.

Parallel Powers (6) Seven Trumpets

An important sequence in the book of Revelation is the Seven Trumpets. When the angels sounded their trumpets, important events were released on earth and in heaven (Rev 8,9). This followed a period of intense intercession in earth (Rev 8:4-5).
The first trumpet brings destruction on earth (Rev 8:6-7). I believe it represents a terrible war that draws in many nations. It might have been fulfilled by the world wars of the twentieth century.

The second trumpet causes a huge mountain to be thrown into the sea (Rev 8:8-9). A mountain is a law system (Is 2:3-4). The sea represents the people of the world (Rev 17:15). I believe this falling mountain is the collapse of the natural law system that had prevailed for many centuries. The rise of democracy destroyed natural law and replaced it with man-made law. This has been a disaster for justice.

The third trumpet caused a great star to fall on the waters of the earth (Rev 8:10-11). Its name was Wormwood, which means bitter. It made everything bitter. In Revelation, seven stars were the angels of the seven churches (Rev 1:20). This event represents the decline of the church in an important part of the world. This church falls away and comes under the control of the spiritual powers of evil.

The fall of the church turned the waters bitter. This is a description of spiritual life in that part of the world turning bitter. This church becomes bitter and a source of spiritual death.

After the fourth trumpet is sounded, the sun, moon and stars turn as dark as night (Rev 8:12). In Revelation, the sun moon and stars represent Israel (Rev 12:1; Gen 37:9) so this is a description of a very dark time in the nation of Israel. It is probably the events often referred to as Jacob’s sorrows.

Parallel Power (3) Presidential Election

In my previous posts, I explained that the governments of nations on earth have their parallel in the spiritual realms. Spiritual kings control a hierarchy of fallen angels that parallel the government military structure of the earthly ruler. Some control cities and provinces. Other spirits manipulate military and religious leaders.

An election will produce a new president or a new government, but the powers in the spiritual realms that control the government do not change. An election does not change the spiritual power; it just changes the people that the spiritual powers control.

This is why things usually carry on the same when a new president or party is elected to power. The same spiritual powers are in control, so nothing changes.

American Christians are rally stirred up about their presidential election. They seem to have forgotten that whichever of the candidates is elected, he/she will be manipulated and controlled by the same spiritual powers as previous presidents.

What the United States needs is a revolution in the spiritual realms. Otherwise, the election will just bring more of the same, whatever the outcome.