What will happen to Satan?

Question 08124.

The future of Satan is one of the few subjects on which Scripture is entirely unambiguous. There is no mystery about the outcome, no suspense, and no possibility of a different result, which is more than can be said for many things people are curious about.

What the Bible gives is a sequence, and following it in order removes a great deal of confusion. Let me set it out as I understand it, reading the prophetic passages literally within a premillennial framework.

The Future of Satan Was Settled at the Cross

The decisive event in the future of Satan has, in a sense, already happened. Jesus said before the crucifixion that now the ruler of this world would be cast out, and Colossians 2:15 says the rulers and authorities were disarmed and put to open shame, triumphed over at the cross.

Hebrews adds that Jesus took on flesh so that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil. The sentence has been passed. What remains is its execution.

That is why I describe him as a condemned prisoner rather than a reigning enemy. Everything that follows in this answer is the carrying out of a verdict already delivered.

Notice how the New Testament writers speak of it. They do not describe a war still in the balance but a triumph already celebrated, and 1 John 3:8 says the Son of God appeared for the purpose of destroying the works of the devil. The language throughout is of completed action with consequences still unfolding, which is exactly how a verdict works before the sentence is carried out.

Expelled From Heaven

Revelation 12 describes war in heaven, with Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon, who is thrown down to the earth with his angels. Given the sequence of Revelation and the flight of the woman for 1,260 days that follows, I take this to occur at the midpoint of the Tribulation.

Until that moment his accusing access continues, which fits the present tense of the accuser accusing day and night. After it, the accusation stops permanently, and heaven rejoices while the earth is warned that the devil has come down in great wrath because he knows his time is short.

That warning explains the ferocity of the second half of the Tribulation. A cornered enemy who can read a calendar is at his most destructive.

It is worth pausing on the location. Many Christians are surprised to learn that the future of Satan involves being thrown out of heaven at all, having assumed he was expelled at his original fall and confined below ever since. Job and Revelation together suggest otherwise, and the accusing access described there is exactly what Revelation 12 brings to an end.

Working Through the Antichrist

The next stage in the future of Satan is his most public attempt at imitation. Revelation 13 shows the dragon giving his power and his throne and great authority to the beast, who receives the worship of the earth.

This is counterfeit on the largest possible scale, an unholy trinity of dragon, beast and false prophet, complete with a mock death and resurrection and a mark that parodies the seal of God. It is his last and greatest deception.

It is also brief. Forty-two months is the period given, and it ends abruptly at the return of Christ. See the relationship between Satan and the Antichrist.

Bound in the Abyss

Revelation 20 gives us an angel with the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain, who seizes the dragon, binds him for a thousand years, throws him into the pit, shuts it and seals it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer.

The details are worth noticing. He is seized, bound, thrown, shut in and sealed. Four verbs of restraint where one would have done, which suggests the writer wants no doubt about how complete this is.

The purpose given is that the nations should not be deceived, and the effect is a thousand years of human history without the deceiver at work. That is a striking thought, and it makes what follows even more instructive. My answer on the great chain of Revelation 20 goes further.

Released for a Little While

Then comes the strangest turn in the future of Satan. When the thousand years are ended he is released from his prison and goes out to deceive the nations, gathering them for battle in numbers like the sand of the sea.

People find this baffling, and I understand why. Why release him at all? The answer, I think, lies in what the rebellion demonstrates. After a thousand years of Christ reigning from Jerusalem, with righteousness enforced and the curse lifted, the human heart is still capable of joining a revolt the moment the opportunity is offered.

That is the final vindication of everything Scripture says about sin. The problem was never the environment. See why he is released after the Millennium.

Cast Into the Lake of Fire

The end comes without a battle. Fire comes down from heaven and consumes them, and the devil who had deceived them is thrown into the lake of fire and sulphur where the beast and the false prophet are, and they will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

Two things in that verse deserve attention. The beast and the false prophet were thrown in a thousand years earlier and are still there, which tells us this is not annihilation. And the duration is stated as strongly as Greek permits, day and night for ever and ever.

That is the end of the future of Satan. Not a rival kingdom in hell, not a slow fading, but conscious punishment under the judgement of God, in the place prepared for the devil and his angels.

What This Is Not

Two popular ideas need clearing away. He does not rule in hell. That picture comes from literature rather than Scripture, and the biblical reality is that he arrives there as a prisoner rather than a governor.

Nor is there any prospect of his restoration. The idea that all beings will eventually be reconciled, including the devil, has appeared periodically in church history, and Revelation 20 leaves no room for it whatever. The sentence is stated as permanent.

Both errors soften the future of Satan into something more comfortable than the text allows, and neither does anybody any good.

Why This Matters to You Now

Knowing how the story ends changes how you fight in the middle of it. You are not struggling to secure an uncertain outcome. You are standing your ground in a conflict whose result was fixed at the cross and will be executed on schedule.

It also puts present suffering in perspective. The enemy’s activity is real and painful, and it is temporary in the strictest sense. Every accusation he brings against a believer is already answered, and the accuser himself has a date in the diary.

And it should make us urgent for those still blinded. The lake of fire was prepared for the devil and his angels, and no one else needs to go there. That is the whole point of the gospel.

There is a further encouragement in it for anyone weary of the fight. The future of Satan is not something we have to bring about by our faithfulness. Our part is to stand until the appointed time, and standing is considerably easier when you know the relief column is already on the road.

Reading These Passages Literally

A word about method, since it affects everything I have said. I read these prophetic passages as describing real events in a real sequence, which is why the thousand years are a thousand years and the binding is an actual restraint rather than a picture of the present age.

The alternative approach treats Revelation 20 as a symbolic description of the church age, with Satan bound now in the sense of being limited in his ability to prevent the gospel spreading. I understand the argument and I do not find it persuasive, chiefly because the text says he is sealed so that he might not deceive the nations, and Revelation 12:9 says he is deceiving the whole world at present.

Those two statements cannot both describe the same period. Taking the future of Satan as a literal sequence keeps the passages in harmony without requiring either of them to mean something other than what it says.

So, now what?

Let the certainty of it settle your nerves. Read Revelation 20 slowly and notice how little drama there is at the end. Fire comes down, and it is over. There is no final contest because there was never a contest.

Then live accordingly. Resist him, knowing he is on his way to the pit. Refuse his accusations, knowing they have already been answered. And tell somebody about Jesus this week, because the difference between the two eternities is not a small one. If the outcome is this certain, what are you still afraid of?

and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

Revelation 20:10 (ESV)