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  2. FIRE-ONGOING Satan in Lake of Fire

FIRE-ONGOING Satan in Lake of Fire

REFORMATION-ONGOING No more Satan
REFORMATION-ONGOING: No Satan
REFORMATION-ONGOING: Kingdom Lost | Kingdom No End
REFORMATION-FOREVER: Kingdom End | Kingdom No End
REFORMATION-FOREVER: Kingdom Taken Away | Kingdom No End
REFORMATION-FOREVER: Captivity | Kingdom without End
REFORMATION-FOREVER: Exile | Kingdom without End
REFORMATION-FOREVER: Kingdom no end, no Satan

Revelation 20:4-10
~foreseen around 63AD by the exiled Apostle John
And I foresaw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given to them. And I foresaw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of the testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark upon their forehead and upon their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. 5 The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years.

7 And when the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison, 8 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. 9 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. 10 And 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

This is where the analogy between the histories of Old Testament Israel and New Testament Christianity part ways.  Following its miraculous deliverance from Heaven by and angel during Hezekiah's reign, Old Testament Israel (Judah harboring the remnant of Israel) degraded under evil kings once again into sin, sieges and ultimately, Exile: this was when God announced that, though He would restore natural Israel for a season, He determined to keep it on life support just long enough to usher in a new covenant.  In contrast, following its miraculous deliverance from Heaven by the Fires of the Reformation, New Testament Christianity has risen under King Jesus the Christ into fuller and fuller manifestation of the glorious liberty of the sons of God in His Everlasting Kingdom that has no end. Glory to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Saint Augustine comments on Rev 20:7-10

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

Revelation 20:7-10 ~foreseen around 63AD by the exiled Apostle John
And when the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison, 8 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. 9 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. 10 And 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

[ I would add the clarification that this "fire from heaven," this "zeal of the Saints," continues to abide with Christians, continually vigilant to subjugate evil in the World around us, whereby the Saints reign over evil. Recall, also, the "tongues of fire," that lit upon the Saints at Pentecost, accompanying their baptism in the Holy Spirit along with the speaking in tongues. Recall, also, John the Baptist's teaching that Christ would baptize "with the Holy Spirit and fire." ]

 

Satan, the organizational head of evil beings, will never again organize the world into idol-worshipping empires as he did in the ancient world, (the various "beasts" of Daniel & Revelation). This does not mean there remain no more evil, or sin, or temptors, etc. It only means that evil beings & temptors lack the organizational head, (Satan), they once had when the world was subjugated beneath idol-worshipping superpowers. Evil beings such as the ancient principalities and powers, (Eph 6:12), are present, (and people still follow their sorceries, Rev 22:15), but they are positioned now only as disorganized insurgents outside the protected "Green Zone," the reigning City of God, the holy Heavenly & New Jerusalem, the eternal ruling empire of Christ, Christendom. The organizational head of evil, the Devil, Satan, has been cast into the Lake of Fire which is the Second Death, Rev 20:10. How much more confidence we should have today to resist evil and temptation, washing our robes in the river flowing from the City, that we might enter the Gates of the City and serve our holy Father & Christ our Lord, reigning with them forever! Amen.

The following events in history are given to show how history lives up to the hope anticpated by this view.

Timeline: 
. REIGN FOREVER