LiesIfYouBelieveTheologiclalLiesYouDieLikeAdam One Open a AFact.htm  --

 If You Believe Theological Lies You Will Ultimately Die Like Adam & Eve did. Ie. Most So-Called Christians are under the

Concept (false Impression) that God is going to some how forgive them for Believing Lies (Lies.htm) because they are imperfect—

NOT SO WHY?---We are not imperfect enough not to investigate the facts (AFact.htm ) of anything—WHY?

The People’s Court----The People VS The Nicene Council—

Now that We are in The (Open) CommunicationsAge.htm  We Can Examine Everything Ourselves Check out B2.htm

Open

IntroductionForConcernedStudents.htm

 

ThePeoplesCourt.htm

 

HowToVerifyTheologicalAcuraciesOrLies.htm

  

Homoousion.htm

 

HomoousionCE.htm

 HowTheologyAndBiasAffectsBibleTranslation3000.htm

 

From Pentecost 33 C.E. on, Satan used Babylon the Great as his tool in trying to contaminate the prospective members of the Lamb’s wife. By the end of the first century, he had sown seeds of Babylonish religion in the congregation. (1 Corinthians 15:12; 2 Timothy 2:18; Revelation 2:6, 14, 20) The apostle Paul describes those who were subverting the faith in these words: “For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself keeps transforming himself into an angel of light.” (2 Corinthians 11:13, 14) In succeeding centuries, apostate Christendom, like the rest of Babylon the Great, dressed herself in the clothing of wealth and privilege, “purple and scarlet, . . . gold and precious stone and pearls.” (Revelation 17:4) Her clergy and popes consorted with bloodthirsty emperors, such as Constantine and Charlemagne. Christendom was never arrayed in “the righteous acts of the holy ones.” But  a counterfeit , Christendom is truly a masterpiece of satanic deception. But Christendom (THE Chtristain part of Babylon the Great(  time is almost over—Hallelujah Read Chapter 4 of Revelation.

 (1) The seven-headed, ten-horned wild beast out of the sea, representing Satan’s political organization, is tumbled into oblivion, and along with it goes the false prophet, the seventh world power. (Revelation 13:1, 11-13; 16:13) While still “alive,” or still functioning in their united opposition to God’s people on earth, they are cast into “the lake of fire.” Is this a literal lake of fire? No, not any more than the wild beast and the false prophet are literal animals. Rather, it is a symbol of complete, final destruction, a place of no return. Here is where, later, death and Hades, as well as the Devil himself, will be hurled. (Revelation 20:10, 14) It is certainly not an inferno of eternal torture for the wicked, since the very idea of such a place is detestable to Jehovah.—Jeremiah 19:5; 32:35; 1 John 4:8, 16.

  (2) All others who were not directly part of government but who were nevertheless an irreformable part of this corrupt world of mankind are likewise “killed off with the long sword of the one seated on the horse.” Jesus will pronounce them deserving of death. Since in their case the lake of fire is not mentioned, are we to expect that they will have a resurrection? Nowhere are we told that those executed by Jehovah’s Judge at that time are to be resurrected. As Jesus himself stated, all those who are not “sheep” go off “into the everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels,” that is, “into everlasting cutting-off.” (Matthew 25:33, 41, 46) This climaxes “the day of judgment and of destruction of the ungodly men.”—2 Peter 3:7; Nahum 1:2, 7-9; Malachi 4:1.

 (3) In this way, all of Satan’s earthly organization comes to an end. The “former heaven” of political rulership has passed away. The “earth,” the seemingly permanent system that Satan has built up over the centuries, is now utterly destroyed. The “sea,” the mass of wicked humanity opposed to Jehovah, is no more. (Revelation 21:1; 2 Peter 3:10) What, though, does Jehovah have in store for Satan himself? John goes on to tell us.

Questions

 (1). (a) What judgment is executed on the wild beast and the false prophet, and in what sense are they “still alive”? (b) Why must “the lake of fire” be figurative?

 (2)  (a) Who are those “killed off with the long sword of the one seated on the horse”? (b) Are we to expect that any of those “killed off” will have a resurrection?

(3)  State in brief the outcome of Armageddon.

 

 

Crushing the Serpent’s Head

Vision 14—Revelation 20:1-10

Subject: The abyssing of Satan, the Millennial Reign, mankind’s final test, and Satan’s destruction

Time of fulfillment: From the end of the great tribulation to the destruction of Satan

DO YOU recall the first Bible prophecy? It was uttered by Jehovah God when he said to the Serpent: “I shall put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He will bruise you in the head and you will bruise him in the heel.” (Genesis 3:15) Now the fulfillment of that prophecy comes to its climax! We have traced the history of Satan’s warring against Jehovah’s heavenly womanlike organization. (Revelation 12:1, 9) The Serpent’s earthly seed, with its religion, politics, and big business, has heaped cruel persecution on the woman’s seed, Jesus Christ and his 144,000 anointed followers, here on earth. (John 8:37, 44; Galatians 3:16, 29) Satan inflicted an agonizing death on Jesus. But this proved to be like a heel wound, for God resurrected his faithful Son on the third day.—Acts 10:38-40.

2 What about the Serpent and his seed? About 56 C.E. the apostle Paul wrote a long letter to the Christians in Rome. In concluding it, he encouraged them by saying: “For his part, the God who gives peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly.” (Romans 16:20) This is more than a superficial bruising. Satan is to be crushed! Paul here used a Greek word, syn·tri′bo, that means to bruise into a jellylike state, to trample down, to destroy utterly by crushing. As for the human seed of the Serpent, this is due for a real plaguing in the Lord’s day, climaxing at the great tribulation in the complete crushing of Babylon the Great and the political systems of the world, together with their financial and military henchmen. (Revelation, chapters 18 and 19) Thus Jehovah brings to a climax the enmity between the two seeds. The Seed of God’s woman triumphs over the earthly seed of the Serpent, and that seed is no more!

 

The Final Test

19 By the end of the Thousand Year Reign, all earth will have come to resemble the original Eden. It will be a veritable paradise. Perfect mankind will no longer need a high priest to intercede for it before God, since all traces of Adamic sin will have been removed and the last enemy, death, brought to nothing. Christ’s Kingdom will have achieved God’s purpose to create one world with one government. At this point, Jesus “hands over the kingdom to his God and Father.”—1 Corinthians 15:22-26; Romans 15:12.

20 It is now time for a final test. Will that perfected world of mankind, in contrast with the first humans in Eden, stand firm in its integrity? John tells us what happens: “Now as soon as the thousand years have been ended, Satan will be let loose out of his prison, and he will go out to mislead those nations in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war. The number of these is as the sand of the sea. And they advanced over the breadth of the earth and encircled the camp of the holy ones and the beloved city.”—Revelation 20:7-9a.

21 How will Satan’s last effort fare? He deceives “those nations in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog,” and leads them to “the war.” Who could possibly side with Satan after a thousand years of joyful, upbuilding theocratic rule? Well, do not forget that Satan was able to mislead the perfect Adam and Eve while they were enjoying life in the Paradise of Eden. And he was able to lead astray heavenly angels who had seen the bad results of the original rebellion. (2 Peter 2:4; Jude 6) So we should not be surprised that some perfect humans will be enticed to follow Satan even after a delightful thousand years of rule by God’s Kingdom.

22 The Bible calls these rebels “nations in the four corners of the earth.” This does not mean that mankind will have been divided once again into mutually exclusive national entities. It merely indicates that these will separate themselves from Jehovah’s righteous, loyal ones and manifest the same bad spirit that the nations show today. They will “think up an injurious scheme,” as did the Gog of Magog in Ezekiel’s prophecy, with a goal of destroying theocratic government on earth. (Ezekiel 38:3, 10-12) Hence, they are called “Gog and Magog.”

23 The number of those who join Satan in his revolt will be “as the sand of the sea.” How many is that? There is no foreordained number. (Compare Joshua 11:4; Judges 7:12.) The final total number of rebels will depend on how each individual reacts to Satan’s deceptive wiles. Doubtless, though, there will be a considerable number, since they will feel strong enough to overcome “the camp of the holy ones and the beloved city.”

24 “The beloved city” must be the city that is spoken of by the glorified Jesus Christ to his followers at Revelation 3:12 and that he calls “the city of my God, the new Jerusalem which descends out of heaven from my God.” Since this is a heavenly organization, how could those earthly forces ‘encircle’ it? In that they encircle “the camp of the holy ones.” A camp is outside a city; therefore, “the camp of the holy ones” must represent those on earth outside the heavenly location of New Jerusalem who loyally support Jehovah’s governmental arrangement. When the rebels under Satan attack those faithful ones, the Lord Jesus regards it as an assault on him. (Matthew 25:40, 45) “Those nations” will try to wipe out all that the heavenly New Jerusalem has accomplished in making earth a paradise. So in attacking “the camp of the holy ones,” they are also attacking “the beloved city.”

The Lake of Fire and Sulfur

25 Will this final effort by Satan succeed? Certainly not—no more than the attack that Gog of Magog is due to make on spiritual Israel in our day will succeed! (Ezekiel 38:18-23) John vividly describes the outcome: “But fire came down out of heaven and devoured them. And the Devil who was misleading them was hurled into the lake of fire and sulphur, where both the wild beast and the false prophet already were.” (Revelation 20:9b-10a) Rather than being merely abyssed, this time Satan, the original serpent, will actually be crushed out of existence, pulverized, completely annihilated as if by fire.

26 We have already noted that “the lake of fire and sulphur” could not be a literal place of torment. (Revelation 19:20) If Satan were to suffer excruciating torture there for all eternity, Jehovah would have to preserve him alive. Yet, life is a gift, not a punishment. Death is the punishment for sin, and according to the Bible, dead creatures feel no pain. (Romans 6:23; Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10) Moreover, we read later that death itself, along with Hades, is cast into this same lake of fire and sulfur. Surely, death and Hades cannot suffer pain!—Revelation 20:14.

27 All of this reinforces the view that the lake of fire and sulfur is symbolic. Further, the mention of fire and sulfur calls to mind the fate of ancient Sodom and Gomorrah, destroyed by God because of their gross wickedness. When their time came, “Jehovah made it rain sulphur and fire from Jehovah, from the heavens, upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah.” (Genesis 19:24) What befell the two cities is called “the judicial punishment of everlasting fire.” (Jude 7) Yet, those two cities did not suffer everlasting torment. Rather, they were blotted out, obliterated for all time, along with their depraved inhabitants. Those cities do not exist today, and no one can say for sure where they were located.

28 In harmony with this, the Bible itself explains the meaning of the lake of fire and sulfur: “This means the second death, the lake of fire.” (Revelation 20:14) It is clearly the same as the Gehenna that Jesus spoke of, a place where the wicked remain destroyed, not tortured forever. (Matthew 10:28) It is complete, utter destruction without hope of a resurrection. Thus, while there are keys for death, Hades, and the abyss, there is no mention of a key for opening the lake of fire and sulfur. (Revelation 1:18; 20:1) It will never release its captives.—Compare Mark 9:43-47.

Tormented Day and Night Forever

29 Referring to the Devil as well as the wild beast and the false prophet, John now tells us: “And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.” (Revelation 20:10b) What could this mean? As mentioned already, it is not logical to say that symbols, such as the wild beast and the false prophet, as well as death and Hades, could suffer torture in a literal way. Hence, we have no reason to believe that Satan will be suffering for all eternity. He is to be annihilated.

30 The Greek word used here for “torment,” ba·sa·ni′zo, means primarily “to test (metals) by the touchstone.” “To question by applying torture” is a second meaning. (The New Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament) In the context, the use of this Greek word indicates that what happens to Satan will serve, for all eternity, as a touchstone on the issue of the rightness and righteousness of Jehovah’s rule. That issue of sovereign rulership will have been settled once and for all time. Never again will a challenge to Jehovah’s sovereignty need to be tested over an extended period of time in order to be proved wrong.—Compare Psalm 92:1, 15.

31 Additionally, the related word ba·sa·ni·stes′, “tormentor,” is used in the Bible to mean “jailer.” (Matthew 18:34, Kingdom Interlinear) In harmony with this, Satan will be imprisoned in the lake of fire forever; he will never be released. Finally, in the Greek Septuagint, which was well known to John, the related word ba′sa·nos is used to refer to humiliation that leads to death. (Ezekiel 32:24, 30) This helps us to see that the punishment that Satan undergoes is a humiliating, everlasting death in the lake of fire and sulfur. His works die with him.—1 John 3:8.

32 Again, the demons are not mentioned in this verse. Will they be released with Satan at the end of the thousand years and then undergo the punishment of everlasting death along with him? The evidence answers yes. In the parable of the sheep and the goats, Jesus said that the goats would go off “into the everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels.” (Matthew 25:41) The expression “everlasting fire” must refer to the lake of fire and sulfur where Satan is to be hurled. The Devil’s angels were cast out of heaven with him. Evidently, they went into the abyss with him at the beginning of the Thousand Year Reign. Consistently, then, they will also be destroyed with him in the lake of fire and sulfur.—Matthew 8:29.

33 In this way, the final detail of the prophecy recorded at Genesis 3:15 is fulfilled. When Satan is hurled into the lake of fire, he will become as dead as a snake the head of which has been ground under an iron heel. He and his demons will be gone forever. There is no further mention of them in the book of Revelation. Now, having prophetically disposed of these, Jehovah’s spirit draws attention to a matter of pressing interest to those who cherish an earthly hope: What will result to humankind from the heavenly reign of the “King of kings” and “those called and chosen and faithful with him”? (Revelation 17:14) To answer, John brings us back once again to the beginning of the Thousand Year Reign.

[Footnotes]

Other scriptures say that Jesus was in Hades while he was dead. (Acts 2:31) We should not conclude, however, that Hades and the abyss are always the same. While the wild beast and Satan go into the abyss, only humans are said to go to Hades, where they are asleep in death until their resurrection.—Job 14:13; Revelation 20:13.

The ax (Greek, pe′le·kus) was seemingly the traditional instrument of execution in Rome, although by John’s day the sword was more generally used. (Acts 12:2) Therefore, the Greek word here used, pe·pe·le·kis·me′non (“executed with the ax”), simply means “executed.”

Interestingly, Papias of Hierapolis, who is understood to have received some of his Bible knowledge from pupils of John, the writer of Revelation, is reported by fourth-century historian Eusebius to have believed in a literal Thousand Year Reign of Christ (although Eusebius strongly disagreed with him).—The History of the Church, Eusebius, III, 39.