Chapter 36 The Abyss
Some translations of the Bible call the abyss the bottomless pit. The King James Version uses bottomless pit. Revelation is the only book in the Bible that uses this term, and indirectly explains what it is:
Rev 20:3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
During the Millennium Satan is incarcerated in the abyss. This incarceration isn’t really locked up in a prison, but simply the circumstances which he will be in: All the righteous are in heaven, and all the unsaved are dead. He has no one to tempt. After 6000 years he will have a sabbath, a rest from his work against God and mankind. He will spend a 1000 years in contemplation of his miserable life and his failure to overcome God’s kingdom and righteousness.
The abyss is therefore a situation where Satan and his angels do not have full range to do what they want to. This will be made plainer as we look at the other six passages of Revelation where the abyss is in the picture. Three of them are from Rev 9, the fifth Trumpet:
Rev 9:1 And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.
2 And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.
11 And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.
We have studied the first four Trumpets (chapter 19), and will yet look at the remaining three. At the fifth Trumpet Satan and his angels come up from the abyss. This means that they are given more liberty to do as they please. They will attack people physically but also try to deceive them. Satan himself will impersonate Christ. Most people will believe he is Christ that has returned to Earth (chapter 22). God allows Satan to do as he pleases but limits him in what he can do to the 144 000 (chapter 19). The abyss is where Satan is controlled and limited, and here he comes out of the abyss, allowing him and his imps free range.
Another role player ascends from the abyss – the crimson beast of Rev 17:
Rev 17:8 The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
Besides Satan and his angels being limited in what they can do up until now, the Jesuits are also restrained by God. They have tried to neutralise the Reformation for 500 years now, and have made great strides in their plans, but God has held them in check. The time is coming when God will give them free range, and the whole World will look at this Order in wonderment. Everyone who are not part of God’s elect will thus be deceived. Rev 11 also refers to the Jesuits as a persecuting power:
Rev 11:7 And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.
This is the scarlet beast of Rev 17 that ascendeth out of the abyss, not Satan being referred to here. The 144 000 have enjoyed God’s protection during the 3.5 years after the Outpouring of God’s Spirit, but toward the end of this period of time, when their work is complete, God removes His protection and the Jesuits will kill many of God’s servants. God gives them more freedom, and they promptly target the 144 000.
Rev 20 has two verses that refer to the abyss in the same context. We started off this study with Rev 20:3. Rev 20:1 also refers to it:
1 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
This event takes place at the Second Advent which is the beginning of the Millennium. The angel is depicted as having a great chain to chain up Satan:
2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
Satan is not really bound with chains, but by circumstances since there is no one to tempt for a thousand years. The righteous are all in heaven, and the unsaved are all dead. Adventists have always understood that the abyss of Rev 20 is the desolate Earth with no one to tempt. To make sense of our understanding of the 5th and 6th Trumpets, which deals with the Ottoman Empire, we see the Arabian desert as the abyss, and the locusts that ascend from there as the armies of that empire which fought against Europe. Actually the Ottoman Empire (Turkey today) is not all desert, so this understanding of the abyss is forced to make sense of the year-day prophecy around the 5th and 6th Trumpets. We will look at that in a later chapter.
The only way in which we can escape from being deceived by the dragon that ascends from the abyss is by being one of God’s elect. This we become if we make a complete and unreserved commitment to Him and allow Him to take full charge of our lives. Our daily prayer should be to have God take complete charge of our lives, and He will bless you if this is your habit.
Some translations of the Bible call the abyss the bottomless pit. The King James Version uses bottomless pit. Revelation is the only book in the Bible that uses this term, and indirectly explains what it is:
Rev 20:3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
During the Millennium Satan is incarcerated in the abyss. This incarceration isn’t really locked up in a prison, but simply the circumstances which he will be in: All the righteous are in heaven, and all the unsaved are dead. He has no one to tempt. After 6000 years he will have a sabbath, a rest from his work against God and mankind. He will spend a 1000 years in contemplation of his miserable life and his failure to overcome God’s kingdom and righteousness.
The abyss is therefore a situation where Satan and his angels do not have full range to do what they want to. This will be made plainer as we look at the other six passages of Revelation where the abyss is in the picture. Three of them are from Rev 9, the fifth Trumpet:
Rev 9:1 And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.
2 And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.
11 And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.
We have studied the first four Trumpets (chapter 19), and will yet look at the remaining three. At the fifth Trumpet Satan and his angels come up from the abyss. This means that they are given more liberty to do as they please. They will attack people physically but also try to deceive them. Satan himself will impersonate Christ. Most people will believe he is Christ that has returned to Earth (chapter 22). God allows Satan to do as he pleases but limits him in what he can do to the 144 000 (chapter 19). The abyss is where Satan is controlled and limited, and here he comes out of the abyss, allowing him and his imps free range.
Another role player ascends from the abyss – the crimson beast of Rev 17:
Rev 17:8 The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
Besides Satan and his angels being limited in what they can do up until now, the Jesuits are also restrained by God. They have tried to neutralise the Reformation for 500 years now, and have made great strides in their plans, but God has held them in check. The time is coming when God will give them free range, and the whole World will look at this Order in wonderment. Everyone who are not part of God’s elect will thus be deceived. Rev 11 also refers to the Jesuits as a persecuting power:
Rev 11:7 And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.
This is the scarlet beast of Rev 17 that ascendeth out of the abyss, not Satan being referred to here. The 144 000 have enjoyed God’s protection during the 3.5 years after the Outpouring of God’s Spirit, but toward the end of this period of time, when their work is complete, God removes His protection and the Jesuits will kill many of God’s servants. God gives them more freedom, and they promptly target the 144 000.
Rev 20 has two verses that refer to the abyss in the same context. We started off this study with Rev 20:3. Rev 20:1 also refers to it:
1 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
This event takes place at the Second Advent which is the beginning of the Millennium. The angel is depicted as having a great chain to chain up Satan:
2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
Satan is not really bound with chains, but by circumstances since there is no one to tempt for a thousand years. The righteous are all in heaven, and the unsaved are all dead. Adventists have always understood that the abyss of Rev 20 is the desolate Earth with no one to tempt. To make sense of our understanding of the 5th and 6th Trumpets, which deals with the Ottoman Empire, we see the Arabian desert as the abyss, and the locusts that ascend from there as the armies of that empire which fought against Europe. Actually the Ottoman Empire (Turkey today) is not all desert, so this understanding of the abyss is forced to make sense of the year-day prophecy around the 5th and 6th Trumpets. We will look at that in a later chapter.
The only way in which we can escape from being deceived by the dragon that ascends from the abyss is by being one of God’s elect. This we become if we make a complete and unreserved commitment to Him and allow Him to take full charge of our lives. Our daily prayer should be to have God take complete charge of our lives, and He will bless you if this is your habit.
Chapter 36 The Abyss
Some translations of the Bible call the abyss the bottomless pit. The King James Version uses bottomless pit. Revelation is the only book in the Bible that uses this term, and indirectly explains what it is:
Rev 20:3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
During the Millennium Satan is incarcerated in the abyss. This incarceration isn’t really locked up in a prison, but simply the circumstances which he will be in: All the righteous are in heaven, and all the unsaved are dead. He has no one to tempt. After 6000 years he will have a sabbath, a rest from his work against God and mankind. He will spend a 1000 years in contemplation of his miserable life and his failure to overcome God’s kingdom and righteousness.
The abyss is therefore a situation where Satan and his angels do not have full range to do what they want to. This will be made plainer as we look at the other six passages of Revelation where the abyss is in the picture. Three of them are from Rev 9, the fifth Trumpet:
Rev 9:1 And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.
2 And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.
11 And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.
We have studied the first four Trumpets (chapter 19), and will yet look at the remaining three. At the fifth Trumpet Satan and his angels come up from the abyss. This means that they are given more liberty to do as they please. They will attack people physically but also try to deceive them. Satan himself will impersonate Christ. Most people will believe he is Christ that has returned to Earth (chapter 22). God allows Satan to do as he pleases but limits him in what he can do to the 144 000 (chapter 19). The abyss is where Satan is controlled and limited, and here he comes out of the abyss, allowing him and his imps free range.
Another role player ascends from the abyss – the crimson beast of Rev 17:
Rev 17:8 The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
Besides Satan and his angels being limited in what they can do up until now, the Jesuits are also restrained by God. They have tried to neutralise the Reformation for 500 years now, and have made great strides in their plans, but God has held them in check. The time is coming when God will give them free range, and the whole World will look at this Order in wonderment. Everyone who are not part of God’s elect will thus be deceived. Rev 11 also refers to the Jesuits as a persecuting power:
Rev 11:7 And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.
This is the scarlet beast of Rev 17 that ascendeth out of the abyss, not Satan being referred to here. The 144 000 have enjoyed God’s protection during the 3.5 years after the Outpouring of God’s Spirit, but toward the end of this period of time, when their work is complete, God removes His protection and the Jesuits will kill many of God’s servants. God gives them more freedom, and they promptly target the 144 000.
Rev 20 has two verses that refer to the abyss in the same context. We started off this study with Rev 20:3. Rev 20:1 also refers to it:
1 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
This event takes place at the Second Advent which is the beginning of the Millennium. The angel is depicted as having a great chain to chain up Satan:
2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
Satan is not really bound with chains, but by circumstances since there is no one to tempt for a thousand years. The righteous are all in heaven, and the unsaved are all dead. Adventists have always understood that the abyss of Rev 20 is the desolate Earth with no one to tempt. To make sense of our understanding of the 5th and 6th Trumpets, which deals with the Ottoman Empire, we see the Arabian desert as the abyss, and the locusts that ascend from there as the armies of that empire which fought against Europe. Actually the Ottoman Empire (Turkey today) is not all desert, so this understanding of the abyss is forced to make sense of the year-day prophecy around the 5th and 6th Trumpets. We will look at that in a later chapter.
The only way in which we can escape from being deceived by the dragon that ascends from the abyss is by being one of God’s elect. This we become if we make a complete and unreserved commitment to Him and allow Him to take full charge of our lives. Our daily prayer should be to have God take complete charge of our lives, and He will bless you if this is your habit.
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