Revelation 20:7–8a: And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out and deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog.
Revelation 20:7-8 present one of the greatest difficulties for Gill’s “glorified saints only” Millennial Kingdom concept. That is, if all the wicked are slain in Revelation 19, then who are the nations Satan deceives in Revelation 20?
The Deceived Nations
Gill made clear all those in the Millennial Kingdom are like the angels. They neither marry nor procreate.1See Gill’s comments on Rev. 20:4. These deceived nations, then, must come from somewhere. Where? Gill’s answer runs along these lines.
First, these nations do not refer to the Gog and Magog in Ezekiel 38–39. Ezekiel spoke to a specific people in his own time. Gill suggests, however, that John alluded to “Gog and Magog” because they came to represent God’s enemies in all ages.2See Gill’s comments on Rev. 20:8.
Second, these nations are the wicked who spring to life in the second resurrection. In his timeline, this occurs at the end of the thousand years. Gill states:
[T]he second resurrection, the resurrection of all the wicked that have been from the beginning of the world; and these, with the posse of devils under Satan, will make up the Gog and Magog army.
John Gill, comments on Revelation 20:8
The deceived nations, then, are all reprobates from all of time. They will rise, bodily, with sound and fury, their souls having been pent up with rage for a thousand years.
Third, they will rise from where they died. Just as the saints will rise from where they died at the beginning of the thousand years, the wicked will do likewise at the end of the thousand years. Gill comments:
[W]here they die and are buried, there they’ll rise and stand upon their feet, an exceeding great army.
John Gill, comments on Revelation 20:8
Then, they will organize themselves for the last battle.
Fourth, they will foment with terrific rage. Think of it. Whether wicked kings, queens, generals, psychopaths, or anyone else who knew not Christ in this life: they will have a thousand years of burning rage, with Satan himself whipping them into a frenzy. He will fill their minds with heresies, falsities, slanders, and wicked thoughts about our Lord, Jesus Christ. Gill describes them this way:
[T]heir envy, malice, and revenge, will be heightened and increased by their confinement and punishment in hell: nor need this be wondered at, since the devils . . . retain the same enmity as ever; and though the deception will be very great, to attack saints in an immortal state, who are like the angels that die not . . . yet it need not seem strange, when they will rise as weak and feeble, and as little able to resist temptation, and as much exposed to seduction, as they were before.
John Gill, comments on Revelation 20:8
In other words, the same Satan who deceived them in this life will keep deceiving them after the second resurrection.
Fifth, they will be emboldened by their vast numbers. They will rise from the dead to see untold billions of resurrected reprobates licking their lips with greedy madness. This sight will feed their lust for revenge all the more. Gill explains:
Satan will have as much power over them as ever; and what with their own numbers, and the posse of devils at the head of them, and especially considering the desperateness of their state, and that this is their last struggle and effort for liberty, they will animate themselves and one another to this strange undertaking . . . these being all the enemies of Christ and his people, both secret and open: and this sense well accounts for their number, being as the sand of the sea.
John Gill, comments on Revelation 20:8
Bloodthirsty and energized by their massive numbers, they will seek to slaughter Christ’s saints; to no avail.
Reflections
The question, “Who are the deceived nations?,” always has plagued historic premillennialists. John Piper once suggested: perhaps God spared the children from being slain in Revelation 19:21, and they flowed into the thousand year reign to become the “nations” Satan deceives.3See, “An Evening of Eschatology: John Piper, Jim Hamilton, Doug Wilson, Sam Storms,” September 27, 2007, accessible online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S0TQ2dXnms. However, that doesn’t completely satisfy either. Gill, himself, scoffs at the notion of one scholar in his day who speculated humans “will be born of the earth, generated from the slime of the ground, and the heat of the sun.”4John Gill, A Body of Doctrinal Divinity, 666. The question is a difficult one.
Gill’s solution is not a bad one, exegetically. Basically, he takes verse 5b–6 as a parenthetical “aside.” The thought picks up again in verse 7. If we set aside the parenthetical for a moment, it reads this way:
The rest of the dead [i.e., the wicked] did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. . . . And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations (Rev 5a, 7–8a).
This is feasible, makes logical sense, and honors the Apostle John’s thought flow. Exegetically, it works, although we’d prefer it to be a bit more buttoned up than that.
Every other position has its flaws, too. On the one hand, amills and postmills must take the “thousand” as figurative, which causes them also to interpret the terms “bound” (Rev 20:2), “sealed” (Rev 20:3), and in “his prison” (Rev 20:7) as Satan possessing “limited influence” in present times. On the other hand, progressive dispensationalists take the “thousand” as literal, but their Millennial Kingdom looks much different than Gill’s. They have (1) glorified immortal saints living alongside (2) mortal unbelievers and (3) mortal saints (saved during the thousand years) in the Millennial Kingdom.
Gill’s view, at least to me, has the least glaring flaws.
Gill’s view, at least to me, has the least glaring flaws: (1) Satan bound in prison; (2) only glorified saints enjoy a thousand years with Christ on the earth he created and restored; (3) Satan is released and the wicked rise bodily to make war on Christ; and, (4) Christ defeats them once and for all.
Can you imagine it: all the evil from all of time, demons and men, concentrated on planet earth at the same time? From murderous Cain to unrepentant Esau; wicked Pharoah, bloodthirsty Jezabel, traitorous Judas Iscariot, demented Nero; Hitler, Mussolini, Saddam Hussein, Charles Manson, etc. The world’s most brilliantly evil masterminds: all alive, all on earth at the same time, all in lockstep together.
Yet, all the evil that ever existed will not be able to touch a single Christian saint. Our King, Jesus Christ, will bring down fire from heaven to consume them (Rev. 20:9b). What a remarkable scene that would be . . . if Gill is correct.
References
| 1 | See Gill’s comments on Rev. 20:4. |
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| 2 | See Gill’s comments on Rev. 20:8. |
| 3 | See, “An Evening of Eschatology: John Piper, Jim Hamilton, Doug Wilson, Sam Storms,” September 27, 2007, accessible online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S0TQ2dXnms. |
| 4 | John Gill, A Body of Doctrinal Divinity, 666. |
