A Poem: Mystery of Iniquity Part 7: Everlasting Destruction1
(with footnotes)
Based on Revelation Chapter 20
Lay hold on the dragon. Advance the chain.2
Wrap the bonds around him secure and tight,
Because in the abyss, he will remain
For one thousand years in the dark midnight.
There he will stay because of God’s decree;
No longer the nations can he incite.
In that darkness, that rancid consignee,
Can’t, for that time, the people deceive.
Shut and sealed! That is the Lord’s guarantee
That Satan will never that prison leave,
Until, arranged at God’s time appointed,
The deceiver then has a short reprieve,
God’s Kingdom on earth won’t be disjointed,
When through sin he won’t deceptively glide.
What person then, could be disappointed?
God, to His people has drawn alongside –
All in His Kingdom are certainly blessed.
Blessed are His people who in Him confide,
For Christ is Messiah who loves you best.
Wicked Satan will never be allowed
In any context, to achieve his quest
To overthrow the promise God has vowed,
For everlasting righteousness and peace.
Let the glorious heavens shout aloud,
For nefarious Satan’s work will cease.
The time has come for the final showdown,
But first, Satan has been granted release.
The point is reached on earth for a shakedown,
Because for one thousand years, discontent
Festered, but now it is to be shut down.3
With crooked zeal spewing spiteful intent,
Satan will deceive the mischief-makers.
They come; action for war, he will ferment;
Gog and Magog4 called, also partakers
In the final, fruitless insanity
To overthrow God, with troublemakers;
To overpower with great profanity,
The holy city and the saints of God –
Those places of redeemed humanity.
Fiery hot is God’s avenging rod
As the account tells us how it’s applied.
For battle, the feet of the Lord are shod.
Rebellious one, you summon to your side
Those false, and like yourself, rebellious are
Who through the reign of Jesus Christ, abide
Not in His love, but from Him live afar,
And secretly, aligned to you, they dwell
While all at once, you snatch their souls to mar.
Demonic powers work the ranks to swell
With captivated minds you have estranged,
Those sorry souls you’ll usher into hell.
What evil sees the human soul deranged
In such a time when Christ the King will reign?
How can this Kingdom bliss be quickly changed?
They come in swarms upon a certain plain
That’s broad in scope, believing what’s not true;
Deceived they are, part of a plan insane.
O, Gog, you’re called, and Magog gathered too;
Now hasten quickly to the fray for war!
Commander Satan’s plans, you construe.
One thousand years of hatred makes its roar
Against the saints camped peacefully at rest.
Beloved city, all their threats ignore!
Against you5 come the hordes that are deceived;
Who number as the shores are filled with sand;
Embraced the message, they like drones received
To follow Satan’s lead for hatred planned.
Deceived, the hoodwinked march for war unjust.
Against our God they come to take their stand.
Your murd’rous hunt, O Lucifer, is lust
For blood to spill in total wickedness.
Your serpent agent was condemned to dust,
But you will be exposed in nakedness.
God’s judgment strikes you down conclusively,
And great torment will claim your wretchedness.
Fire from heaven devours decisively6
Satan’s Gog troop, in a moment of time –
Gone, and the saints rejoice effusively.
Satan’s defeated by his pantomime.
His armies devoured in fiercest fire!
They receive what they deserve for their crime.
To think, against our God, they could conspire
In arrogance, and rebellious loathing.
Now condemned forever with judgment dire.
Those who sadly did the devil’s bidding
And to Satan, but not to God, drew near,
From Cain to vile Gog, will have their lodging –
The lake of fire7, whose origins are clear:
For punishment, from ages past, arranged:
The devil and his band, the place they fear.
The goodness of God, the devil exchanged;
(The conscious choice all have in creation),
But sin and rebellion makes one estranged.
Eve to Satan’s demise – that duration,
His fetid filth invaded the atmosphere.
Sin, hurt, pain, war, all will find cessation.
In the Lord’s presence, all will be sincere,
The love and light of God, with us forever;
All will be revealed, and nothing unclear.
With Him, in His Person, naught can sever
The precious treasures, His blood did obtain.
With iniquity gone, nothing whatever
Wrong, but knowledge and wisdom will we gain
As redeemed members of His blood-bought Bride.,
And with Christ forever, PRAISE GOD, we will reign!
——————- END OF PART SEVEN ——————–
- Part 7 with its title, “Everlasting Destruction,” is the very final mopping up of sin from the world. That only happens when Satan is cast into the lake of fire, and there will be no more sin ever in God’s creation. Following this event in Revelation 20, we read of the great white throne judgment of all the unsaved from all the ages. It is a topic not covered in this poem.
The Revelation passage under consideration for Part 7 is Satan’s final battle and defeat, but I think I will attach the verses here – Revelation 20 v 7-10 “And when the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison, and will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war. The number of them is like the sand of the seashore. And they came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and fire came down from heaven and devoured them. The devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever” (NASB).
It is wrong to call Revelation an allegory or an account of some unstated event in the past. Revelation is in three parts (Rev 1 v 19) – “The things which you have seen,” Chapter 1. “The things which are,” Chapters 2 and 3, and lastly, “The things which shall take place after these things,” Chapters 4 – 22, all of which is future.
- Satan is chained. When at the Second Coming, Jesus returns to earth to reign for 1,000 years (Read chapter 14 of Zechariah), it will be a time of glorious peace, and to ensure His reign will be without interference, Satan is bound and chained in the abyss for the 1,000 years of the Kingdom reign of Christ (Rev 20 v 1-3).
- This is the start of the final rebellion that will see Satan’s end in the lake of fire. One might wonder how sin and discontent is present in the world when Satan has been bound for 1,000 years. Sin does not rely on Satan. Human beings are born with sinful natures, and it is those natures that lead to sin. During the 1,000 years, Jesus reigns in Jerusalem with the Bride (the Church) and with all the redeemed of Israel (called “saints” in Revelation). Nations which survive the separation of the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25 v 31-46) are the Gentiles who are in the worldwide kingdom.
Human nature is always bent on going astray, and it will happen also in the Kingdom rule. There will be malcontents and dissatisfied people with the Lord (Why, I can’t possibly imagine). Children are born all through this time, and most don’t know the great turmoil of the past, so they are careless still and rebellious of heart. These ones will gather themselves under Satan’s command to try to destroy the righteous ones in Israel and Jerusalem. It is the final attempt to overthrow God.
In the Millennial reign of Christ, people will live longer. Isaiah 65 v 19-20 “I will also rejoice in Jerusalem, and be glad in My people, and there will no longer be heard in her the voice of weeping and the sound of crying. No longer will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his days, for the youth will die at the age of one hundred, and the one who does not reach the age of one hundred shall be thought accursed.”
With the great blessings of God, one is astounded that there is a ferment of rebellion among the people, but this verse reveals the state of the human heart – Jeremiah 17 v 9 “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick. Who can understand it?”
- Gog and Magog. This may seem a bit confusing if you remember the first mention of Gog and Magog – See Footnotes 5 and 23 of Part 6. However, here, according to the context, Gog and Magog are considered all the deceived of the nations in the four corners of the earth. It is nothing more than that, a generic group, as it were.
- “You” = the beloved city (Jerusalem) and the camp of the saints at the end of the 1,000-year reign after Satan is released from the abyss.
- God’s wrath is a fearsome thing. God’s jealousy is very protective. His fierce anger will be outpoured against that huge group gathered for and with Satan on that broad plain, and they will be devoured and instantly dismissed. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Satan will be taken and his fate is described.
- The lake of fire. Liberal theologians dismiss the lake of fire as they do hell (and miracles, and a host of things). God is clear. The lake of fire exists, but there is no one contained there right now. The first to enter that place will be the Antichrist (coming world leader in the Tribulation) and the false prophet (Rev 19 v 20). Satan is next to enter there (Rev 20 v 10). Then a countless number follow shortly after (Rev 20 v 14:15).
You don’t want to be there. If you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour, repent and give him your life. His death was for you, and you owe Him an eternal gratitude. If His gift of salvation is refused, then judgment rests on the head of the one refusing. Actually, in the first instance, hell was made for the fallen angels – Matthew 25 v 41 “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.’” The Bible calls the lake of fire the second death.
From gotquestions.org – Fire is often used as a symbol of God’s judgment. The symbolism stems from real-life examples of God’s use of fire to punish the wicked—the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19 v 24), for example, and the destruction of Elijah’s enemies (2 Kings 1 v 12). Prophets often described God with a stream of fire coming from His throne, a symbol of His holy punishment of sin (e.g., Daniel 7 v 10; Isaiah 30 v 33). The fact that the destiny of those who reject God is described as a “lake of fire” speaks to how serious the judgment is. When God finally abolishes sin and death, all sinners will be condemned to the worst possible fate, described in the Bible using the most horrific terms.
EPILOGUE
All things visible and created, except God’s messengers, the angels, must come to an end in their present form. This poem has come to an end, and the central adversary in the poem will meet his end in the lake of fire. After that, the entire created universe comes to an end when God fashions/creates the new heavens and earth wherein resides righteousness for all eternity. For us now living in a sinful world, that concept will be such a revelation.
2Peter 3 v 10 “but the day of the Lord will come like a thief in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.” Revelation 21 v 1 “I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea.”
This poem touched on the deeper mysteries of ungodliness and the insidious and permeating working of iniquity, which belong to the enemy of souls; but it has not tried to delve into any theological or philosophical areas concerning the great arguments about evil. Let us take the practical parts of the poem for reflection.
The term “mystery of iniquity” is taken from the King James Version, from this verse – 2Thess 2 v 7 “For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.” For modern readers, the NASB is probably clearer – 2Thess 2 v 7 “For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way.” What the verse says is that there is a mysterious working of lawlessness, but its full bloom is held back by the Holy Spirit, and will be until the Holy Spirit is taken from the world at the time of the Rapture of the Church. What a shocking place this world would be if it was not for the Holy Spirit restraining the onslaught of wickedness.
Although we live in days of great evil, we also live with great promises. Paul urges the Thessalonians to wait for the Lord in view of the fact that Jesus will deliver us from the coming wrath – 1Thess 1 v 10 “and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.”
In the parable of the Tares, it was while the farmer was asleep that the enemy crept in and sowed wild wheat, darnel, weeds, tares (whichever you prefer). Satan sows relentlessly, and we must be on our guard unless we are caught out unaware. Romans 13 v 11 “This do, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep, for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed.”
The poem suggested that wickedness would increase as the end of the Church age approaches. Not only would evil be more manifested as the writer believes it is today, but those who resist wickedness by living righteously will suffer in a variety of ways. As I write this Epilogue, we hear of reports of dismissals from work by having a Bible in the desk drawer at work. Christians are denied promotions, and people like Israel Folau (Rugby Union player 2019) will be condemned for supporting and quoting the Bible. 2Timothy 3 v 12-13 “Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.”
Nothing unclean can ever exist in God’s presence, but we have been cleansed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are clothed in the righteousness of God. One day we will be taken out of the very presence of iniquity in this world and will have an unblameable holiness. 1Thess 3 v 13 “so that He may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints” (NASB). Jesus is coming, and He comes with His reward – Rev 22 v 12 “Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done.”
To close, let us embrace the great words Paul wrote to the Christians at Thessalonica in 1Thess 5 v 23 –
“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”