“And when the thousand years are completed, Satan will be loosed
out of his prison, and will go out to deceive the nations in the
four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them to
battle: the number of whom is like the sand of the sea. And they
ascended on the breadth of the earth, and encompassed the camp of
the saints, and the beloved city: and fire descended from God out
of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil, who deceived them,
was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where both the wild
beast and the false prophet are, and will be tormented day and
night for ever and ever. And I saw a great white throne, and him
who sat on it; from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away,
and a place was not for them. And I saw the dead, the small and
the great, standing before God; and the books were opened: and
another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead
were judged from the things written in the books, according to
their works. And the sea gave up the dead in it; and death and the
pit gave up the dead in them: and they were judged every one
according to their works. And death and the pit were cast into the
lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And
whoever was not found written in the book of life, was cast into
the lake of fire.” Rev. 20:7-15.
Verses 11-15 contain the record of the symbolization John saw, of what was
to transpire at the end of the thousand years; while verses 7-10 appear to
be explanatory of events which would then be fulfilled. This explanation,
previous to the exhibition of the symbolization, is appropriate in the
connection, and makes more forcible the fact that “the rest of the dead
lived not again until the thousand years were finished.”
As the rest of the dead live not till the end of the thousand years, they
come forth at “the resurrection of damnation,” at the end of a thousand
years of the reign of the saints on the earth, and at the epoch when Satan
was to be loosed from his prison. As all who had part in the first
resurrection were to be exempted from the power of the second death, the
nations who are then deceived by Satan, must be the nations composing the
rest of the dead, who live again at that epoch.
Their number “as the sand of the sea,” and their coming from “the four
quarters of the earth,” show that they are no obscure people, living
unknown to the saints; and their existence can only be accounted for by
the event of a resurrection of the wicked.
Their names, “Gog and Magog,”—those applied to the ancient enemies of
Israel, (Ezek. 38:38),—are appropriate titles to designate the subjects of
the second resurrection.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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