FromNowUntilForeverBook8.5x5.5 REV.indd
John also saw an angel gathering clusters of ripe grapes with a sickle, in this case signifying judgment rather than harvest. And once these people are thrown into the great wine press of God’s wrath, blood rising as high as the horses’ bri- dles will flow for nearly 200 miles— the entire length of the Holy Land. (Revelation 14:19-20). While it’s hard to take this description literally, it certainly depicts the extent and expanse of divine judgment. Capping off this great demonstration of wrath will be the Antichrist and false prophet being thrown alive into the lake of fire (Revelation 19:20).Their leader, Satan is then imprisoned. As the Bible says, John saw:
An angel coming down from heaven and he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and he threw him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any lon- ger, until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be released for a short time (Revelation 20:1-3). Pay special to the term nations , which introduces an
intriguing question. Although there are those who feel that only believers will be alive at this stage in history, I believe this designation refers to lost persons and their future offspring alive after Christ’s return.The fact that Jesus achieves victory over His enemies doesn’t mean He has destroyed them all. After all, if believers remain to populate the earth, who are the “deceived”? Some claim the deceived are those born to believ- ers between the Second Coming and Satan’s ultimate demise. I believe this cannot be the case, since this violates what Je- sus taught about procreation and the resurrected body (Luke 20:35-36).That said, however, the lost will continue to multi-
66
Made with FlippingBook PDF to HTML5