At the end of the great tribulation, after the Lamb marries the bride, Christ will come as a fighting General with His bride, that is, the overcoming believers called to the marriage dinner, as His army to fight against Antichrist and the kings under him with their armies at Armageddon (19:11-21). There will be three enemies who continue to oppose the Lord: Satan, the dragon; Antichrist, the beast out of the sea; and the false prophet, the beast out of the land. Under the instigation of Antichrist, human beings will even wage war directly against the Lord of lords and the King of kings. Antichrist, the false prophet, and the ten kings and their armies (9:14-16; 16:12) will make war against the Lamb. The armies that are in heaven will follow Christ the Lamb on white horses; they will be dressed in fine linen, white and clean (19:14). The beast and the kings of the earth and their armies will gather together at Armageddon to make war with Him who sits on the white horse and with His army (v. 19). In this war Antichrist and his armies will be defeated, and the beast will be seized, and with him the false prophet, who in his presence did the signs by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshipped his image. These two will be cast alive into the lake of fire, which burns with brimstone (v. 20). Antichrist and the false prophet will be cast into the lake of fire earlier than Satan. They will be the first to perish in the lake of fire. The armies that follow them, however, will be “killed with the sword which proceeds out of the mouth of Him who sits on the horse” (v. 21).
After the defeat of Antichrist, Satan will be bound and imprisoned so that the rebellious earth may be cleared up and the kingdom of Christ may come. The abyss is in the heart of the earth. Satan will be imprisoned there for a thousand years (20:1-3).
During the millennium, the citizens on the earth will still have the rebellious nature of mankind, which will need to be exposed and purged. Furthermore, the dead unbelievers, death and Hades, and the demons will all need to be dealt with. After the thousand years, Satan will be released and used by the Lord to test rebellious mankind and to purge out the rebellious nature. After this, the dead unbelievers and the demons will be judged at the great white throne. Everything negative throughout the whole universe, including death and Hades, will be swept into the lake of fire so that the new heaven and the new earth with the New Jerusalem may come.
The abyss will only be a temporary prison for the devil. “When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison” (v. 7). Satan will be used as God’s tool to test mankind for the last time.
After Satan is released, he “will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war. Their number is like that of the sand of the sea” (v. 8). The nations will go up “upon the breadth of the earth” and surround “the camp of the saints and the beloved city” (v. 9). This will be the last war on earth, the last rebellion of mankind. The rebellious nature within mankind will be exposed by Satan’s last instigation and will be purged away by the Lord’s final judgment on mankind.
According to Ezekiel 38:2, Gog and Magog are of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, which correspond with Russia, Moscow, and Tobolsk. These places are “the remotest parts of the north” (v. 15; 39:2). Revelation 20:8 shows that Satan’s deceiving of the nations that are in the four corners of the earth is his deceiving of Gog and Magog. This may indicate that in mankind’s last rebellion against God, which will be instigated by Satan, Gog and Magog will take the lead and the nations will follow.
In that last rebellion the nations will surround the camp of the saints and the beloved city. The camp of the saints is the lodging of the overcoming believers, who are the heavenly armies (19:14), camping on earth. The beloved city is the city of Jerusalem, the dwelling place of the remnant of Israel. In the millennium the overcoming believers and the remnant of Israel will be God’s faithful people on earth, standing with God and for God. At the end of the millennium Satan will instigate rebellious mankind from the uttermost parts of the north to attack God’s faithful people on earth. However, fire will come down out of heaven and devour the rebels (20:9).