What Happens to Satan, the Antichrist & the Dead?

Hello, and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. Okay, here we go again, number four, and we'll be ready to head for home. Revelation chapter 19. Revelation chapter 19. Now, we've been looking, of course, at the second coming of Christ and all of the attendant cataclysmic events that'll be with it. And in our last program, we showed that the rapture, on the other hand, will be a silent event, and anything associated with its happening will just suddenly be here one minute and gone the next. But at the actual return of Christ, there's going to be tremendous judgment, wrath poured out on the planet. And now, if you'll pick that up then in Revelation 19 again, so we finish that chapter, here we have the account that we studied several weeks ago of the return of Christ depicted here as coming upon the white horse in verse 11. And then verse 13, as he is again depicted as having trampled the wrath in the grape vat, he was clothed, verse 13, with a vesture dipped in blood. His name is called the Word of God. Verse 14, the armies of heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. That, of course, I think will be the church-age saints as well as an angelic host. And then verse 15, out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations. Now, there again is a reference to his judgment, his wrath upon the empires and the nations of the world that we've been looking at in chapter 18. And he'll rule them as he sets up his kingdom. Now, these same nations, and we'll be looking at that in future programs, who will be in the kingdom? And, of course, there'll be nations again, but only believers, of course, can go into the kingdom. There'll be no unbelievers in the millennial reign, but there will be believers, and we won't have time for that in this half hour, but in our next taping or in our next four lessons we'll be covering who will comprise the early citizens or inhabitants of the kingdom age, and from them, of course, will come that great population explosion. But for now, suffice it to say that he will not only smite the nations, but he will rule them with a rod of iron. But as he is at his second coming, treading the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God, then verse 16, "...he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords." Now, let's come down to verse 17. Here's territory we haven't covered. "...and I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven..." Now, we always have to stop. Remember that Scripture speaks of how many heavens? Three. Three heavens. The first heaven is the area around us, the atmosphere where the birds fly, and so it speaks of the fowls of heaven as you see it here. The second heaven in Scripture is the area of what we call space. It's the area of the moon and the stars and what have you. And then in 2 Corinthians, I think it is chapter 12, Paul refers to what? The third heaven, and that, of course, is the very abode of God, the heaven of heavens as we understand it. Always remember that, and again, you pick it up in the context. Now, here, of course, it's speaking of the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven. It's not talking about birds in the throne room or anything like that, but simply the birds who fly in the air around us. All right? And so all the birds that fly in the midst of our atmosphere, they're told, come and gather yourselves together to the supper of the great God that you... Now, here, watch the pronoun. It's in reference to these birds, these vultures, these scavenger birds, that they can eat the flesh of kings and captains and the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and them that sit on them, the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. In other words, this great conflagration that will fall upon these assembled armies, especially in the area of the Middle East, these birds of prey and the scavengers will come and sort of be a cleansing effect, getting the earth ready, of course, for the soon appearance of the kingdom. And all of the Old Testament speaks of this very event when the birds, the scavenger birds, will actually feast on these gathered armies, and that's why it's called the supper of the great God. I'm always careful when I say things like this because we've come to the conclusion, of course, that people can write just about anything, and sometimes they can write it without proof. But years ago, someone had told me of reading an article that one of the major scavenger birds in the Middle East normally only laid two eggs at a time, and usually only had one brood. In other words, they only had two offspring a year. And, oh, I don't know how many years ago this was. Somebody told me that that same species of bird suddenly had doubled and was now laying four eggs and producing four instead of two. Well, I take things like that with a grain of salt, and then not too long ago I read it again, that it is more or less documented that this specific species of a scavenger bird is indeed multiplying at a rate almost double of normal in the Middle East. Now, if that be true, of course, that would just indicate that we're just that much closer to all this, that God is already even preparing these birds to be of such a number that they will just simply come in on these vast numbers of destroyed humanity. Well, anyway, verse 19, John now writes, "...I saw the beast." Now, remember, as we've studied the book of Revelation, the beast was the man Antichrist, or it referred to the empire which he ruled. Now, again, you take it according to the context. Now, here, of course, we're not talking about the empire. We're talking about the emperor. We're talking about the man Antichrist. And so he says, "...I saw the beast, the man Antichrist, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him who sat on the horse and against his army." Now, you remember those verses we read in Zechariah? Maybe we'd better go back and look at it. That's the best way to learn your Bible. Go back to Zechariah 14. Go back to Zechariah 14, those verses, I think we read it in the last program, where it's a beautiful, almost carbon copy of the book of Revelation concerning this last great battle before the return of Christ. Zechariah 14. Now, Zechariah, remember, is the next to last book in your Old Testament. Find Matthew and just go back through Malachi, and there's Zechariah. Chapter 14, where it says, "...Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoils shall be divided in the midst of thee, for I will gather all nations..." See that? "...I will gather all nations against Jerusalem." See? And then verse 3, "...and the Lord shall go forth, and fight against those nations who have gathered in the Middle East, and then his feet stand upon the Mount of Olives." All right, now flip back to Revelation again, if you will. And so all these kings and their armies who have come to the Middle East to destroy the nation of Israel, and of course they are destroyed in turn by the return of Christ. All right, now then we come into verse 20. Everything is going to move quickly now in getting the earth and everything ready for the appearance of His Kingdom, that Kingdom on earth that has been talked about from the onset of human history. But before the King can come in, He has to deal with these who were His archenemies. Verse 20, "...and so the beast was taken, the Antichrist, and with him the false prophet..." Remember, he was the leader of the world's religions during the seven years. "...and they are both men, born of women, come on up through the ranks in their respective areas, the beast, the Antichrist in the area of politics, the false prophet in the area of some world religion, who wrought miracles before him..." And you remember that was back in an earlier lesson where the false prophet is akin to the work of the Holy Spirit. You remember I called it an unholy trinity, that Satan is synonymous with God the Father, this false prophet is synonymous with the Holy Spirit, and then the Antichrist is synonymous with Christ, and how that this false prophet will cause people to worship the Antichrist, even as the Holy Spirit leads us to worship the Christ. All right, "...these two men then, who have deceived them who received the mark of the beast, and them that worshiped his image..." Now verse 20, the end of the verse, "...these both," both these men, "...were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone." Now I had a lady ask an interesting question a year or two ago, and I'd never really thought of it to actually teach it as a lesson, but her question as we started one evening before I got into the text was, what's the difference between hell and the lake of fire? Have you ever thought about that? Have you ever asked the question, what's the difference between hell and the lake of fire? Well, there is all the difference in the world. A lot of people think they're one and the same, and they are not the same. Hell will one day go into the lake of fire, see? So they're not one and the same, but we'll cover that at a later time, and it's almost at least a 30-minute lesson if you chase down all the references showing first where and what hell is, and where and what the lake of fire is, and you can see that they are not one and the same. But anyway, that'll come later. So these now are both cast alive not to hell, which of course is where lost people go today, but these men will go to the lake of fire wherein there is no one at all at this point in time. Then verse 21, "...and the remnant," that is those who had survived the battle of Armageddon and all of the cataclysmic events, "...the remnant were slain with the sword of him who sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth." Now I always have to stop there. Does that mean He's going to come with a great big sword, or even a machine gun in His teeth? No. What is the sword of the Lord? It's His Word. Hebrews chapter 4, verse 12, what does it say? "...but the word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword." And so that's how He will destroy. That's how He will defeat His enemies, with the spoken Word. How did He create the universe? Spoken Word. How does He do anything? With the spoken Word. And He'll do it here. He speaks the Word and it's done. And all the fowls, these birds, these scavenger birds were filled with their flesh, that is these armies gathered there in the areas of Jerusalem. All right, now let's go right on into chapter 20, because as soon as the Tribulation has ended and Christ has returned, we're going to set the stage now for that thousand year reign of Christ, what we call the Kingdom, or the Millennium, here on the earth. Verse 1, "...and I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit, and a great chain in his hand." Now there was another chapter where that language was used. You remember what I said? Doesn't necessarily mean an iron chain to confine a spirit being like Satan, but it'll be some sort of a material that God knows will confine even a spirit being such as Satan. And so He has this great chain in His hand. Verse 2, "...and so He laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent who is the devil, Satan, and bound him a thousand years." Now I'm a literalist, and when the Bible says that Satan will be bound for a thousand years, I believe that's exactly what it means, that he is going to be confined for that thousand year period of time. And then He's not only bound, but verse 3 says, "...he will be cast into the bottomless pit." And again, it's a unique place known only to God where He's going to confine Satan for this thousand year period of time. Now the reason He can't send Satan to the Lake of Fire, that is a place of eternity. And Satan isn't ready for eternity yet. He's got one more opportunity at the end of the thousand years, remember. He's going to be released, and again, he's going to have full freedom to deceive the nations that will be back on the scene once again. So rather than put him into his place of eternal doom, God confines him to a place for that thousand year period of time. Alright, so He's put into the bottomless pit, verse 3, "...shut up," and He sets a seal upon him, "...that he," Satan, "...should deceive the nations no more." What's the next word? Until. See, and there's that time element again. He's going to be locked up until the thousand years should be fulfilled or completed, and after that, he has to be loosed for a little season. See? He's going to have to again have that opportunity to test the new generations that will come on the scene in that kingdom economy. In other words, the millennium becomes then another period of testing. Now remember, we've had six of them. We've had six periods of testing all the way up through human history, and this one has to be the seventh, and God always does things in seven, so we have to have a seventh period of testing the human race. Now even the citizens of this kingdom, these who will fill the earth during the kingdom, are going to be normal flesh-and-blood people, having children, working, producing, but it's going to be in the absence of sin, it's going to be in the absence of the adversary, and it's going to be under the perfect righteous rule of Christ the King. That's what's going to make it so perfect. It will be the epitome of everything that man could even hope or dream of, because it's going to be that glorious kingdom on the earth with Satan locked up, Christ as King, but yet the human race having opportunity to produce and reproduce. Now of course, we won't be part and parcel of that flesh-and-blood population. We're going to be, I think the word I like to use, we're going to be interfacing with them. From our place of authority as resurrected saints, God is going to give every believer an area of responsibility, and beyond that I can't explain it. And I get that from, of course, in his account of the talents, if you'll remember. And when the fellow who he gave ten talents came back with ten more, what was his response when he came back? He said, when I come into the kingdom, you shall rule over what, ten cities. And so I like to think that the rewards of the believer is going to be various, what shall I say, various amounts of responsibility in that kingdom economy. And how it's going to be done, I don't know, but that is what we are working for reward. And you know, I always like to use the illustration, most people, I know a few, but most people like to be active. I think even some of the old ancient philosophers have said, two weeks of vitalness is about as much as the average human can take. You know, we like to go on vacation, maybe for two weeks, and after that, what are you ready for? Hey, you want to get back to work, you want to get active again. And I think this is going to carry over into the kingdom. And as I've said over and over, we're not going to sit someplace on a cloud and strum a harp with nothing to do. God is going to give us tremendous amount of responsibility and activity, and I think that's what we would all enjoy the most, otherwise it wouldn't be heaven. And oh, I got all kinds of illustrations to show that. I think most of you, if you had the opportunity to get involved in something exciting and really be involved, or just sit on the sidelines and be a spectator, what would you pick? Well, you'd want to be involved, wouldn't you? And I think it's the same way in the kingdom, that the rewards that God is going to give to us for laboring in this life is going to be compensated then with activity and responsibility when He sets up this kingdom here on the earth. All right, so He's going to be confined for that thousand years, but then He's going to have to be released in order to test that final population of that thousand-year time. Now verse 4 of chapter 20, "...And I saw thrones, and they who sat upon them, and rule," the word judgment here means rule, "...was given unto them. And I saw the souls of them who were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, the martyrs, and for the word of God, who had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, nor had received his mark in their foreheads, or in their hands." Now here it comes, "...and they lived," and what's the next word? "...reigned with Christ a thousand years." Now that's plain English. Read on. Now, the rest of the dead live not again until the thousand years are finished. Now who are the rest of the dead? Well that'd be the lost. Now keep your hand in Revelation. I hope we've got time. Go back to John's Gospel again, chapter 5, John's Gospel, chapter 5. Here again we're in the midst of Jesus' earthly ministry, and if you happen to have a red letter edition, this will be in red. It's Jesus speaking Himself. All right, now look what He says in verse 28, John's Gospel, chapter 5, verse 28, "...marvel not at this, for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice." Now, some people take that to mean there's only going to be one resurrection, everybody going to come out of the grave at the same time, but I always maintain you have to compare Scripture with Scripture. Now, maybe according to this one verse it may sound that way, but the rest of Scripture says it's not going to be one single resurrection. And so what do you do? Well, you lay one against the other, and as in any kind of a doctrine, you don't just take one verse and lift it out and say, hey, this is it. But you compare from cover to cover the whole spectrum of Scripture. All right, so let's go on. Verse 29, "...they shall come forth, they who have done good," in other words, the people of faith, "...will come forth to the resurrection of life." Now, that's the resurrection of the believer. Revelation calls that the first resurrection. Then, "...they who have done evil," the unbeliever, they're going to come to the resurrection of condemnation. That's the lost. So how many kinds of people have you got in those verses? Two. You've got the believing, and the unbelieving. And yes, they're all going to be resurrected, but it doesn't say all at the same time. Now let's qualify that. Now I guess, let's go back to Daniel first. Go back to Daniel chapter 12, and then from Daniel chapter 12 we're going to come back to I Corinthians chapter 15. But Daniel 12 first. Daniel chapter 12. We haven't got very much time left again. These 28 1⁄2 minutes, they just sort of disappear, don't they? Daniel chapter 12. Drop all the way down to verse 13. Daniel chapter 12, verse 13. Now Daniel, of course, asks the question back in verse 8. Go back there first. In verse 8, Daniel says, I heard, but I understood not, and I said, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things? Now that was Daniel asking the question. Then verse 9, God said, Go thy way, Daniel. And just pick up that conversation all the way down now then to verse 13. God is speaking to the prophet, and God says to Daniel, But go thou thy way till the end be. In other words, it wasn't for him to understand all these things. Now look what God says. For thou shalt rest. Well what was He speaking of? He's going to die. And Daniel did. For thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot. What do you suppose that word lot means? Well company. See? In your segment. And thou shalt stand in thy lot, when? At the end of the days. Now that takes us all the way then to the beginning days of the millennium. All right, now let's see what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15. See all of Scripture fits if you'll just look for it. Now Jesus spoke as if they'd both happen maybe simultaneously, but the rest of Scripture says no. There's going to be segments who will be resurrected in their own time. And that's why Revelation says the first resurrection, the resurrection of life, the second resurrection is a resurrection under condemnation. All right, 1 Corinthians 15, Paul's going to say much the same thing that Daniel did. You come down to verse 20, 1 Corinthians 15, verse 20. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept or have died. Now I wish I had another hour and we could qualify the firstfruits and all the rest. We can't do that in this half hour. Verse 21, for since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. In other words, if you're going to die and if God is going to keep His promises, then we have to be resurrected, has to be. Now come to verse 22 and 23, for as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. Now you see how that fits with John 5? Sure the lost are going to be resurrected. But now look what the next verse says, but, now I said that's one of the most important little three-letter words in the language, but every man in his own, now what's the word? Order. Daniel would have said in his own what? Lot. They both mean the same thing. It's more or less a military term of organization. So every person that's going to be resurrected is either going to be in the lot or the order or the company of the lost, which will be all one group, or they'll be resurrected in Daniel's company, which is the Old Testament saints, or they're going to be resurrected with the company of believers that Paul talks about, which is the body of Christ, and we know from the rest of Scripture that the tribulation saints are going to be in a separate resurrection or a translation of something. They're not going to be in a general resurrection, see? And then those of you who really know your Bible, what took place on the morning of the resurrection at Jerusalem out there in the graveyard? Many who were asleep in the graves arose from the dead and became the what? Firstfruits of them that slept. So I qualify the first resurrection then as the firstfruits, those who came out on the resurrection and Christ Himself, the firstfruit, then the main harvest, the church-age believer, and then the Old Testament saints who will come up on the scene, as Daniel is told, sometime after the kingdom has begun, and they're going to be more or less the wedding guests at the great supper of the marriage supper of the Lamb. Now, those three categories of believers then comprise the first resurrection of believers, as we saw in Revelation. The lost are not going to be resurrected until after the kingdom has ended. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a weekly Bible study. If you would like more information about the Les Feldick Ministries, a Bible study in your area, or about this program, write to Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, OK, 74552. That's Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, OK, 74552. 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