THE MILLENNIUM AND THE GREAT WHITE THRONE JUDGMENT

SATAN AND HIS EVIL ANGELS ARE BOUND IN HADES FOR 1000 YEARS (Rev 20:1-3)
          In Rev 20:1-3 we see that an angel seizes Satan, binds him with chains and throws him into the Abyss for 1000 years.  We presume that his evil angels are treated likewise although we are not specifically told so.  The reason we presume that is because we are told that Satan will not be able to deceive the people on earth for the 1000 year period; that certainly includes having his evil servants bound also.  Isa 24:21-23 tells us that evil angels will be put in prison for a period of time and then punished at a later date, which fits the scenario perfectly and confirms our suspicions.  There is, however, an interesting footnote to verse 3; Satan will be set free for a short period of time at the end of the 1000 year period.  We will see the reason later in verses 7-9.  It is interesting that four of the names used for Satan are used in verse two, the dragon, the ancient serpent, the devil and Satan.  This confirms that the serpent, Satan, of Revelation is the same evil angel from Genesis who first led man into sin.  Why did God take Satan out of the world for the millennium?  Because he had promised the Jews a period of time on a paradise like earth where they would be blessed.  The millennium fulfills many of God’s promises to the Jews.

 RESURRECTION OF THE TRIBULATION SAINTS (Rev 20:4-6)
          A soul is defined as a living person, meaning a spirit inhabiting a body, Gen 2:7, Job 34:14-15, 32:8, Ps 104:29-30.  When a believer dies we understand that his spirit departs from his soul and goes to heaven, Eccl 12:7.  The body returns to dust and the soul no longer exists.  We see several times in Revelation that souls are seen in heaven, Rev 20:4, 6:9.  That implies that the spirit had been reunited with its body to again produce a living soul.  This is called a resurrection in the Bible.  We understand that there are resurrections at the raptures of believers and also at the judgment of unbelievers.  Resurrected or glorified bodies are created by God and reunited with spirits at the resurrection events.  Rev 20:4-6 implies that there are two resurrections.  The first resurrection is the resurrection of believers and it likely occurs in at least four phases, at the beginning, middle and end of the tribulation period and at the end of the millennium.  The beginning rapture is the general rapture of the church, the middle rapture is the rapture of the 144,000 and the two witnesses in the fifth judgment, and the ending rapture is the rapture of the tribulation saints killed after the mid tribulation rapture.  This rapture of tribulation saints is mentioned in Rev 20:4.  We are told that they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.  They are also called souls in Rev 20:4, again implying that they had been given resurrected bodies.  The judgment mentioned in verse 4 is likely the sheep-goat judgment.  Raptured believers may take place in this judgment.  In verse 4 John sees those who had been given authority to judge.  1 Cor 6:2 says that redeemed believers will judge the world.  The second resurrection is the resurrection of the unbelievers of all ages at the end of the millennium, at which time they stand before the Great White Throne.  Those in the first resurrection will live forever as resurrected souls while those in the second resurrection face the second death of their soul in the lake of fire.  This second death occurs when the resurrected bodies of the unbelievers are thrown into the lake of fire and destroyed.  Their spirits apparently live forever in torment in either the lake of fire or outer darkness.

THE RELEASE OF SATAN, HIS FINAL WORK, AND HIS FINAL JUDGMENT (Rev 20:7-10)
          We are told in verses 7-10 that at the end of the 1000 years Satan will be released and allowed to use his lies again for a short time to try to deceive the people on earth.  We presume that is because the final judgment is scheduled for that time and God only wants those in heaven for eternity who have been tested by Satan’s lies and deceit, have resisted them and have chosen instead to believe in and follow Jesus.  The allure is sin is so very powerful and we see that in spite of having lived in a virtual paradise for 1000 years, apparently the majority of those on earth choose to give in to Satan’s lies and follow him.  Man still has a sin nature even after 1000 years of near paradise.  How very sad!  We see that Satan leads all of those who gave in to his lies to their utter destruction.  This is Satan’s last chance and his last ditch effort to defeat God.  However, he is again captured and this time he is thrown into the lake of burning sulfur where he is tormented for ever and ever.

THE SECOND RESURRECTION AND THE GREAT WHITE THRONE JUDGMENT
(Rev 20:11-15)
          There is a definite distinction between hell and Hades and it is necessary to understand that distinction to understand some of the things taught in this chapter.  Hades is a temporary holding place, akin to a county jail, where the spirits of unbelievers are held from the time of their death until their final judgment after the millennium.  Their final judgment is called the Great White Throne Judgment and God the Father is apparently the judge, John 12:47-50.  The unbeliever is first resurrected, meaning that he is given a new resurrected body, his spirit is placed in the body and he again becomes a living soul.  The living soul stands before God at the Great White Throne, is judged and pronounced guilty, and is then thrown into the lake of fire.  Their body is consumed in the fire leaving only their spirit to live forever in outer darkness.  This second separation of the spirit from the body (this time the resurrected body) is called the second death.  We are told in Rev 20:6 that believers in Jesus never have to face the second death.  They will live forever in heaven as resurrected souls.  Remember that the first death is defined in the Bible as separation of the spirit from the soul (James 2:26, Ezek 37:5, Ps 104:29), at which time the body returns to dust and the spirit returns to God for believers and goes to Hades for unbelievers.
          The lake of fire mentioned above is the place known as hell.  It is akin to the state or federal prison, but there is no possibility of parole.  In fact everyone who is sent there faces the death penalty.  Everyone who stands before the Great White Throne Judgment is given the death penalty, called the second death in Rev 20:6 and 20:14.  That death is again death of the body, as the body is consumed by the fires of hell.  The spirit apparently lives on forever in outer darkness, a place where the light of Jesus does not shine, a place of eternal separation from God.  Everyone in outer darkness may be trapped in their own unique eternal nightmare. 
          The fires of hell serve two purposes as I see it, for eternal punishment of Satan and his evil angels, and for destruction of the resurrected bodies of unbelievers as part of their second death.  After the destruction of their bodies they may then be confined to outer darkness forever.  It is also possible that some or all will remain in the lake of fire forever.  The Bible does not seem to be specific about this.  The one thing that we do know is that God says the judgment will be fair.
          Apparently Hades originally had two compartments in it, (1) one we described above as the temporary holding place for unbelievers spirits awaiting their final judgment, and (2) a temporary holding place for the spirits of the redeemed until Jesus bought their pardon at Calvary, after which he took them to heaven.   There is also a place called the Abyss or Tartaros where evil angels who had played a part in the creation of the Nephilim were being held, possibly along with the Nephilim themselves.  Understanding these distinctions and places requires going back to the original Greek translations of the Bible.  One reason for this is that the King James Bible began using the English word hell to represent all three places.  This has led to a lot of confusion and incorrect theology.  I am making an effort to reflect the original language usage of these words.  It is impossible to correctly interpret some of the Revelation passages with doing so.
          With that understanding as background we will now begin analyzing Rev 20 11-15 which describes the Great White Throne Judgment.  Also see Matt 13:37-43 for a description of this judgment.  Following are the things we are told about the Great White Throne Judgment:

• Apparently God the Father is sitting on his throne in heaven to conduct this judgment.
• The earth and sky are no longer in existence as we know them.
• The guilty are standing before the throne.
• Several books are opened to aid in their judgment, one of which was the book of life.  Everything that they had done in their lives was recorded in the books.  The book of life was examined to see if their names were in it.  The only names contained in the book of life are those who are believers in Jesus and have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, Rev 20:15.  If their names were not found in this book they were thrown into the lake of fire.  Again, verse 12 says books, plural, were opened.  One is the book of life and the others are not named.  It seems that there must also be a book of death.  Believer’s names and lives are recorded in the book of life and unbelievers names and lives are recorded in the book of death. 
• It was the souls of the unbelievers who were standing before the throne.  We are told in Rev 20:5 that they had come to life after the end of the millennium, meaning that they had been given resurrected bodies and their spirits had been reunited with the bodies.  A soul is defined as a living person, meaning a spirit inhabiting a body, Gen 2:7, Job 34:14-15, 32:8, Ps 104:29-30.  We see in Rev 20:13 that both death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them.  This may mean that the spirits that were in Hades and the spirits of those unbelievers who had lived until the end of the millennium, when all human life ends, were all reunited with resurrected bodies and sent before God for judgment.  The statement, “The sea gave up the dead that were in it,” may mean that the unbelievers who were still alive at the end of the millennium, those who were spiritually dead though still physically alive, were plucked from the vast sea of humanity and taken before God’s great white throne.
• In verse 14 we see that both death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire, meaning that both are destroyed; there will no longer be any death and there will no longer be a need for Hades.  There will no longer be humans in the universe.  This is called the second death, which we defined above as the second time that the spirit leaves the body, and the second time that the body is destroyed.  The second death is produced by the lake of fire, as the fire consumes the resurrected body.