Revelation 20:8, commentary and pictures

At the close of the thousand years after Christ's return the wicked dead are raised in the second resurrection to receive their doom, and Satan goes out to deceive them throughout the earth. Gog and Magog are that worldwide host from the four quarters of the earth, a multitude beyond counting as the sand of the sea, including the wicked of every age with kings, warriors and mighty men. Satan claims to have raised them and to be able to free them from Christ, flattering them that their vast numbers can take the Holy City and possess its glory, and they believe him because they had already chosen his rule. They organize for war under appointed leaders and march to surround the New Jerusalem after it descends to the plain, but their courage fails when they see Christ in glory and understand what they have lost. Then fire comes down from God out of heaven and devours them root and branch, destroying Satan with all the wicked together while purifying the earth for the new heaven and new earth.

Time, Host and Number

The gathering belongs to the close of the thousand years after the second advent. Throughout those thousand years the wicked dead remain dead, and only at its end are they raised in the second resurrection. At that time Christ returns to the earth with the redeemed and with angels and bids the wicked arise to receive their doom, and they come forth as a mighty host.

Gog and Magog are the names for that worldwide host from the four quarters of the earth which Satan then leads. The raised wicked form a vast multitude beyond counting, as numerous as the sand of the sea. Their rising prepares the final conflict at the end of the thousand years.

The host gathers the wicked of all ages, countless millions raised together. Among them are mighty warriors and kings skilled in battle, mighty giants and valiant men who never lost a battle, and proud conquerors such as Napoleon. There are also multitudes of the long-lived race from before the flood, men of lofty stature and giant intellect who gave their skill to self-exaltation, with kings and generals who conquered nations and proud warriors whose approach made kingdoms tremble.

They rise bearing the visible marks of the curse, of disease and death. This stands in direct contrast to the righteous raised in the first resurrection with immortal youth and beauty. As they rise they behold Jesus in His glory and recognize in Him the crucified Savior they rejected.

Coming from their graves they resume thought where death stopped it, with the same conquering spirit, ambitions, enmity and rebellion that ruled them in life. Death has made no change in them, so they rise with the same desire to conquer and the same rebellious and warlike thoughts they held in life. Their words of welcome to Christ are forced from unwilling lips by the truth, not inspired by love. They receive no further probation, for another lifetime would not soften their hearts or change their rebellion, and their cases are forever settled.

Satan's Final Deception

After the second resurrection Satan at once resumes his deceiving work among his subjects, passing through their ranks and making the feeble and weak strong. He first consults with his angels and then with resurrected kings, conquerors and mighty men, drawing them into his counsel for the final assault. He claims to be their rightful ruler and redeemer, insists that he and his angels are powerful, falsely tells them that he raised them from the dead, and promises to free them from Christ's rule. They are ready to receive his suggestions and do his bidding, for in rejecting Christ they had accepted the rule of the rebel leader and remain his captives.

He flatters them that the company inside the City is small and feeble while his own army is large, pointing them to their countless numbers as proof of strength. He persuades them that their vast host can overthrow God, overcome the saints, go up and take the Holy City, cast out its inhabitants, and possess its riches and glory for themselves. Seeing the vast multitudes on his side his own hopes revive and he determines not to yield the great controversy.

Deceived, all at once prepare for battle, with many skillful men constructing weapons of war. They organize into companies and divisions under appointed leaders and marshal warlike men with military precision. Then the countless host advances in order over the broken and uneven earth to surround the holy City, with Satan himself leading in front and his angels uniting with kings, warriors and multitudes following behind, expecting a fierce conflict and conquest.

This last struggle for supremacy, this final effort to rally countless followers everywhere and overwhelm God's people, is doomed to fail. Though the wicked share his hatred of God, they at last see that victory is impossible and that his power is ended. They no longer acknowledge his supremacy, and in rage they turn against him and his agents and against those who deceived them, bringing on universal strife.

Judgment and Consuming Fire

The gathering for battle belongs to the close of the thousand years, after Jesus and the saints have finished the work of judging inside the holy city, where the saints have rested and reigned as kings and priests throughout that time. Then Jesus descends with the saints and angels, stands upon the Mount of Olives, which parts asunder and becomes a mighty plain, and the holy city comes down and settles upon that plain as the paradise of God. The wicked dead, raised at the end of the thousand years, gather around the camp of the saints and surround the New Jerusalem intending to seize it for battle. When they see the glory of Jesus and the redeemed they realize the treasure and eternal life they have lost, and their courage fails, yet their feet will never desecrate the earth made new.

This surrounding of the city is the general judgment and the execution of judgment at the end of the thousand years, distinct from the partial resurrection of those raised after Christ's resurrection. The saints do not execute judgment during the thousand years, but the wicked are judged for what the saints with Jesus determined during that time. They then receive the King's final sentence to depart into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels, and are destroyed by the wrath of God and the Lamb. The destruction of the seven last plagues comes earlier, after Jesus leaves the sanctuary, and is not this final execution.

Fire comes down from God out of heaven and devours them, and at the destruction of Gog and Magog the whole wicked host is burned up root and branch and ceases to exist, with Satan as the root and the wicked as his branches. The same fire that devours the wicked purifies the earth and makes way for the saints' inheritance, and after this destruction the new heaven and new earth appear. God will call forth for this the fires reserved inside the earth in the form of coal and oil, made from the majestic trees He had grown for the benefit of the people of the old world, which they used to make idols and to corrupt themselves. Just as He called forth the waters in the earth as weapons from His arsenal to destroy the antediluvian race at the flood, He will call forth the fires in the earth as His weapons at the end of the thousand years, bringing final destruction not only on the successive wicked generations since the flood but also on the antediluvian race that had perished by the flood.

After Satan has been bound for a thousand years the wicked are raised, Satan leads the final rebellion, and he and all who joined his rebellion perish together before Christ's triumph and reign on earth. At the grand review human righteousness cannot save anyone, and those not prepared will lose eternal life.