God's New Bible

The Revelation of St. John the Divine

Unlocked Dynamic Bible :: World English Bible Catholic

- Chapter 20 -

1
Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven. He had the key to the deep, dark pit, and he was carrying a large chain in his hand.
2
He seized the dragon. That dragon is the ancient serpent, the devil, that is, Satan. The angel bound him with the chain. That chain could not be loosed for one thousand years.
3
The angel threw him into the deep, dark pit. He shut the door of the pit, locked it, and sealed it to prevent anyone from opening it. He did that in order that Satan might no longer deceive all the many groups of people, until those one thousand years are ended. After that time, Satan must go free for a short time in order that he can do what God has planned.
4
I saw thrones on which people were sitting. God gave them authority to judge. I also saw the souls of other people whose heads had been cut off because they had spoken the truth about Jesus and had declared God’s message. They were people who had refused to worship the beast or its image, and who had not allowed the beast’s servants to put the beast’s mark on them, either on their foreheads or on their hands. They became alive again, and they ruled with Messiah during those one thousand years.
5
They were the ones who lived again the first time that God caused dead people to live again. The rest of the believers who had died did not live again until after those one thousand years.
6
God will be pleased with those who live again this first time. God will consider them holy. They will not die a second time. Instead, they will be priests who serve God and Messiah, and they will rule with Messiah during those one thousand years.

Satan Cast into the Lake of Fire

7
When the one thousand years are ended, God will release Satan from his prison.
8
Satan will go out to deceive the rebellious people groups all over the earth. These are the nations that the prophet Ezekiel called Gog and Magog. Satan will gather them to fight against God’s people. There will be so many of them fighting against God’s people that no one will be able to count them, just as no one can count the grains of sand on the ocean shore.
9
They will march over the whole earth and will surround the camp of God’s people in Jerusalem, the city that God loves. Then God will send fire down from heaven, and it will burn them up.
10
God will throw the devil, who had deceived those people, into the lake of burning sulfur. This is also where God had thrown the beast and the false prophet. As a result, they will continually suffer severely forever.

Judgment before the Great White Throne

11
Then I saw a huge white throne on which God was sitting. He was so fearsome that the earth and the sky disappeared from his presence completely; they were no more.
12
I saw that the people who had died but now lived again were standing in front of the throne. They were both important and unimportant people! The books in which God records what people do were opened. Another book was also opened, which is the Book of Life in which God has written the names of people who have eternal life. God judged the people who had died and now lived again according to what they had done, just as he had recorded it in the books.
13
The people whose bodies were buried in the sea became alive again in order to stand before God’s throne. Everyone who had been buried on the land became alive again also in order to stand before the throne. God judged each one of them according to what each one had done.
14
All the unbelievers, those who had been in the place where they waited after they died, were thrown into the burning lake. The burning lake is the place in which people die the second time.
15
God also threw the people whose names were not in the book, the book where God has written the names of the people who have eternal life, into the lake of fire.
1
I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand.
2
He seized the dragon, the old serpent, who is the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole inhabited earth,(a) and bound him for a thousand years,
3
and cast him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, that he should deceive the nations no more until the thousand years were finished. After this, he must be freed for a short time.
4
I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and such as didn’t worship the beast nor his image, and didn’t receive the mark on their forehead and on their hand. They lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
5
The rest of the dead didn’t live until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
6
Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over these, the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and will reign with him one thousand years.

Satan Cast into the Lake of Fire

7
And after the thousand years, Satan will be released from his prison
8
and he will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to the war, whose number is as the sand of the sea.
9
They went up over the width of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. Fire came down out of heaven from God and devoured them.
10
The devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet are also. They will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

Judgment before the Great White Throne

11
I saw a great white throne and him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. There was found no place for them.
12
I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and they opened books. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works.
13
The sea gave up the dead who were in it. Death and Hades(b) gave up the dead who were in them. They were judged, each one according to his works.
14
Death and Hades(c) were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.
15
If anyone was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire.

Footnotes

(a)20:2 TR and NU omit “who deceives the whole inhabited earth”.
(b)20:13 or, Hell
(c)20:14 or, Hell