You are here1070-REFORMATION: Surrounded | Gog & Magog

1070-REFORMATION: Surrounded | Gog & Magog

1070-REFORMATION: Threat of Extinction | Gog & Magog
1070-REFORMATION: Kingdom Besieged | Gog & Magog
1070-REFORMATION: Surrounded | Gog & Magog
1070-REFORMATION: The Kingdom Besieged | Gog & Magog
1070-REFORMATION: Besieged | Gog & Magog
1070AD-REFORMATION: Kingdom Under Siege | Gog & Magog
1070AD-REFORMATION: Besieged by Satan's armies
1070-Reformation: Satan Released

1070AD-REFORMATION: Saints tested by Satan's release, Rev 20:7-10: Saints under seige like ancient Israel.

Revelation 20:7-9 ~foreseen around 63AD
Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea. 9 They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. ...
NASB

This period answers to the Old Testament period of the scattering of the 10 Northern tribes and the siege of Jerusalem by the Assyrians during the reign of Hezekiah as reported by Isaiah. In analogous Christian history, Satan was released for a while to test and prove the New Jerusalem (Rev 20:7-9) in like manner as was the old Jerusalem. Historical accounts are given to reveal "the spirit of the age," that is, its telling marks & character, or "zeitgeist" of this period in Christian history reminiscent of that of ancient Israel under seige. On both occasions, heaven came to the rescue of the holy remnant of the Israel of God: the true believers, the saints.

[It should be noted, however, that the king of Christians, the immortal King Jesus, will never err like King Hezekiah who later invited in the Babylonian spies, bequeathing His reign to heirs like Manasseh and Amon, and thereby losing the kingdom and Jerusalem to destruction again and again. So the analogy between Old Testament history and Christian history ends with the miraculous deliverance from seige under the reign of good King Hezekiah. Henceforth, Christian history is a blank page ready to be co-authored between God and Man: our Tomorrows are determined by what we do with Jesus Today and not by prophetic judgments upon generations long passed. There will never be a destruction of the Heavenly Jerusalem of which Christians are citizens; not by the Babylonians nor again and again by the Romans. The reign of Christ and His Kingdom, Christendom itself, endures forever and ever. Amen.]

Saint Augustine on Rev 20:7-9

The words, “And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and encompassed the camp of the saints and the beloved city,” do not mean that they have come, or shall come, to one place, as if the camp of the saints and the beloved city should be in some one place; for this camp is nothing else than the Church of Christ extending over the whole world. And consequently wherever the Church shall be,—and it shall be in all nations, as is signified by “the breadth of the earth,”—there also shall be the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and there it shall be encompassed by the savage persecution of all its enemies; for they too shall exist along with it in all nations,—that is, it shall be straitened, and hard pressed, and shut up in the straits of tribulation, but shall not desert its military duty, which is signified by the word “camp.”

The words, “And fire came down out of heaven and devoured them,” are not to be understood of the final punishment which shall be inflicted when it is said, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire;” (Matt 25:41), for then they shall be cast into the fire, not fire come down out of heaven upon them. In this place “fire out of heaven” is well understood of the firmness of the saints, wherewith they refuse to yield obedience to those who rage against them. For the firmament is “heaven,” by whose firmness these assailants shall be pained with blazing zeal, for they shall be impotent to draw away the saints to the party of Antichrist. This is the fire which shall devour them, and this is “from God;” for it is by God’s grace the saints become unconquerable, and so torment their enemies. For as in a good sense it is said, “The zeal of Thine house hath consumed me,” Ps. 119:9, so in a bad sense it is said, “Zeal hath possessed the uninstructed people, and now fire shall consume the enemies,” Isaiah 26:11. Saint Augustine's City of God and Christian Doctrine, pages 692-3

The New Jerusalem, (ie, the global community of the true Christians), subjected to same test that scattered the northern kingdom of Israel and threatened to destroyed old Jerusalem during the reign of Hezekiah. It corresponds to the historical period recorded by Isaiah.
God's People under siege on every side, Turks & Wars & Black Death Plagues without and heretics running rampant within, True Faithful Christians face the greatest challenge to their survival since the Roman Empire was overcome for Christ.
From early Reformers like John Wycliffe to later Reformers like Martin Luther, the period following 1070AD is considered a Dark Age, a challenging season in Christian history. And secular historians have similar words for the period of World history. [It should be mentioned here that I regard the Reformation fires to have begun with the likes of John Wycliffe and ending with the likes of Martin Luther & Jean Calvin. Thus, the Reformation beginning with Wycliffe gave rise to the Renaissance, "the rebirth" that followed. Progress is preceeded by preaching]. Relative to the 1000 year Millennium just finished and Eternity just ahead, this period of Satan's Release is a "short while."
World History is cited to demonstrate the "zeitgheist" or "spirit of the age" of this dark period before the Reformation fire came like "fire from Heaven" to rescue the faithful from enemies on every side.

COLOR KEYS
Enlarged passage describes the challenging age of 1070AD-Reformation. Surrounding passages are provided for context.
Bold red = Satan-devil and those he deceives into attacking the Camp of the Saints-holy beloved city-New Jerusalem.
Each time John writes, "I foresaw", he introduces another mini-vision describing immediate consequences of Bablyon-Jerusalem's 70AD Fall.
Bold blue = the Saints
Coloring and highlighting associates the words thrones-reigned-reign and holy-saints-holy-holy and CAMP-CITY-CITY-CITY and beloved-bride.

Revelation 20:4-10 ~foreseen around 63AD in the predictive vision to Christ's exiled Apostle John about "things shortly ot come to pass," Rev 1:1 and Rev 4:1
And I foresaw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I foresaw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. 5 But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years. 7 Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea. 9 They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the CAMP of the saints and the beloved CITY. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. 10 The Devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
Revelation 21:1-3, 9-10
1 Now I foresaw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. 2 Then I, John, foresaw the holy CITY, NEW JERUSALEM, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. ...
9 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me, saying, "Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife." 10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great CITY, the holy JERUSALEM, descending out of heaven from God, ...

Revelation 22:5
And they shall reign forever and ever.
NKJV

QUICK READING COMPREHENSION QUESTION: (Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?)

Revelation 20:9 - Who gets devoured by fire from heaven?

A) The beloved CITY

B) The Devil-led armies surrounding her

REFORMATION: "Fire from Heaven" compared with divine deliverance of old Jerusalem by angel from Heaven during Hezekiah

OLD TESTAMENT SAINTS
Old Jerusalem receives sudden, divine deliverance from existence-threatening siege by an angel from Heaven.

NEW TESTAMENT SAINTS
"The Camp of the Saints, the Beloved City" receives sudden, divine deliverance from existence-threatening siege by "fire from Heaven."

2 Kings 18:9-19:37

Cites of Israel & Judah taken away by Assyria

9 And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria, and besieged it.
10 And at the end of three years they took it: even in the sixth year of Hezekiah, that is the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken.
11 And the king of Assyria did carry away Israel unto Assyria, and put them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes:
12 Because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord their God, but transgressed his covenant, and all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded, and would not hear them, nor do them.
13 Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah did Sennacherib king of Assyria come up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them.

Hezekiah appeases the approaching Assyrians in vain

14 And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria to Lachish, saying, I have offended; return from me: that which thou puttest on me will I bear. And the king of Assyria appointed unto Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.
15 And Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord, and in the treasures of the king's house.
16 At that time did Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord, and from the pillars which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria.

17 And the king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rabsaris and Rab-shakeh from Lachish to king Hezekiah with a great host against Jerusalem. And they went up and came to Jerusalem.

Assyrians surround & threaten Jerusalem

And when they were come up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is in the highway of the fuller's field.
18 And when they had called to the king, there came out to them Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, which was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder.
19 And Rab-shakeh said unto them, Speak ye now to Hezekiah, Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this wherein thou trustest?
20 Thou sayest, (but they are but vain words,) I have counsel and strength for the war. Now on whom dost thou trust, that thou rebellest against me?
21 Now, behold, thou trustest upon the staff of this bruised reed, even upon Egypt, on which if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharaoh king of Egypt unto all that trust on him.
22 But if ye say unto me, We trust in the Lord our God: is not that he, whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away, and hath said to Judah and Jerusalem, Ye shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem?
23 Now therefore, I pray thee, give pledges to my lord the king of Assyria, and I will deliver thee two thousand horses, if thou be able on thy part to set riders upon them.
24 How then wilt thou turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master's servants, and put thy trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?
25 Am I now come up without the Lord against this place to destroy it? The Lord said to me, Go up against this land, and destroy it.
26 Then said Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and Shebna, and Joah, unto Rab-shakeh, Speak, I pray thee, to thy servants in the Syrian language; for we understand it: and talk not with us in the Jews' language in the ears of the people that are on the wall.
27 But Rab-shakeh said unto them, Hath my master sent me to thy master, and to thee, to speak these words? hath he not sent me to the men which sit on the wall, that they may eat their own dung, and drink their own piss with you.
28 Then Rab-shakeh stood and cried with a loud voice in the Jews' language, and spake, saying, Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria:
29 Thus saith the king, Let not Hezekiah deceive you: for he shall not be able to deliver you out of his hand:
30 Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying, The Lord will surely deliver us, and this city shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.
31 Hearken not to Hezekiah: for thus saith the king of Assyria, Make an agreement with me by a present, and come out to me, and then eat ye every man of his own vine, and every one of his fig tree, and drink ye every one the waters of his cistern:
32 Until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of oil olive and of honey, that ye may live, and not die: and hearken not unto Hezekiah, when he persuadeth you, saying, The Lord will deliver us.
33 Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered at all his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?
34 Where are the gods of Hamath, and of Arpad? where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah? have they delivered Samaria out of mine hand?
35 Who are they among all the gods of the countries, that have delivered their country out of mine hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of mine hand?
36 But the people held their peace, and answered him not a word: for the king's commandment was, saying, Answer him not.
37 Then came Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, which was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder, to Hezekiah with their clothes rent, and told him the words of Rab-shakeh.

Jerusalem seeks the LORD for deliverance

19:1 And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord.
2 And he sent Eliakim, which was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.
3 And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.
4 It may be the Lord thy God will hear all the words of Rab-shakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to reproach the living God; and will reprove the words which the Lord thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that are left.
5 So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
6 And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say to your master, Thus saith the Lord, Be not afraid of the words which thou hast heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.
7 Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumour, and shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.
8 So Rab-shakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah: for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish.
9 And when he heard say of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, Behold, he is come out to fight against thee: he sent messengers again unto Hezekiah, saying,
10 Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Let not thy God in whom thou trustest deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.
11 Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly: and shalt thou be delivered?
12 Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed; as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden which were in Thelasar?
13 Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivah?
14 And Hezekiah received the letter of the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up into the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord.
15 And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord, and said, O Lord God of Israel, which dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth: thou hast made heaven and earth.
16 Lord, bow down thine ear, and hear: open, Lord, thine eyes, and see: and hear the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent him to reproach the living God.
17 Of a truth, Lord, the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and their lands,
18 And have cast their gods into the fire: for they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone: therefore they have destroyed them.
19 Now therefore, O Lord our God, I beseech thee, save thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord God, even thou only.

The LORD answers prayer for deliverance

20 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, That which thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard.
21 This is the word that the Lord hath spoken concerning him; The virgin the daughter of Zion hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee.
22 Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel.
23 By the messengers thou hast reproached the Lord, and hast said, With the multitude of my chariots I am come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon, and will cut down the tall cedar trees thereof, and the choice fir trees thereof: and I will enter into the lodgings of his borders, and into the forest of his Carmel.
24 I have digged and drunk strange waters, and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of besieged places.
25 Hast thou not heard long ago how I have done it, and of ancient times that I have formed it? now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest be to lay waste fenced cities into ruinous heaps.
26 Therefore their inhabitants were of small power, they were dismayed and confounded; they were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb, as the grass on the housetops, and as corn blasted before it be grown up.
27 But I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage against me.
28 Because thy rage against me and thy tumult is come up into mine ears, therefore I will put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest.
29 And this shall be a sign unto thee, Ye shall eat this year such things as grow of themselves, and in the second year that which springeth of the same; and in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruits thereof.
30 And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall yet again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.
31 For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this.

32 Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it.
33 By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the Lord.
34 For I will defend this city, to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake.
35 And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.
36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh.
37 And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword: and they escaped into the land of Armenia. And Esar-haddon his son reigned in his stead.

Revelation 20:7-10
And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
8 And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
9 And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

Commentary
This passage begins by stating that the Assyrians already took away the cities of Israel & Judah before approaching Jerusalem. Those taken away were hardly heard from ever again, even considered "the lost tribes of Israel." Even when some were allowed to return to the land of Israel much later, they were ever after referred to as "Samaritans," never quite "God's People " ever again. This was, then, a circumstance in which the very existence of God's Covenant People, Jerusalem was threatened with extinction more than any time since the Exodus which preceded the conquest of the promised land and the establishment of the kingdom.

Commentary
LIkewise, this siege by Gog & Magog was envisioned as a circumstance in which the very existence of "the Camp of the Saints, the beloved City" was threatened with extinction more than any time since the Tribulation which preceded the 1000-years Millennium. Such were the circumstances of true Christian believers everywhere when the fire of the Reformation suddenly came as a deliverance from Heaven.

Add new comment

1070-REFORMATION: Surrounded | Gog & Magog

1070AD-REFORMATION: Saints tested by Satan's release, Rev 20:7-10: Saints under seige like ancient Israel.

Updated Articles