We come now to the fifth general division of our subject—_The Devil's
Destiny_.
1. Turn in the first place to Rev. 20:1-3: +"And I saw an angel
coming down out of heaven, having the keys of the abyss and a great
chain in his hand. And he laid hold of the dragon, the old serpent,
which is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, 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 should
be finished: After this he must be loosed for a little time."+ We
are here taught that _at the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ
Satan shall be bound with a great chain and cast into the abyss for a
thousand years_. The abyss, or as it is translated in the Authorised
Version, "bottomless pit," does not mean hell. Satan, as we shall see
further on, shall be cast into hell later.
2. Turn now to Rev. 20:7, 8: +"And when the thousand years are
finished, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall come forth
to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog
and Magog, to gather them together to the war: The number of whom is
as the sand of the sea."+ We are here taught that _at the end of
the Millennium, the thousand years, Satan shall be loosed for a little
season from the abyss into which he has been cast chained, and that he
shall come forth to deceive the nations_. But the time of his power
then will be very brief.
3. In Rev. 20:10 we find the ultimate destiny of the Devil: +"And
the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and
brimstone, where are also the beast and the false prophet; and they
shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever."+ Here is
one of the points at which the theories of the "Reconciliation"
people and "Universalists" generally break down. The argument of the
Reconciliationists and Universalists, by which they attempt to prove
that all men must ultimately be saved, carried to its logical issue, if
it proved anything, would prove the salvation of Satan also, and this
many of them do teach. They say plainly that the Devil will ultimately
be brought to repentance and saved. Indeed that is what I believed
and taught in my early ministry. But this passage which we have just
read shows the impossibility of this being true. "The lake of fire"
was "prepared for the Devil and his angels." Our Lord Himself says in
Matt. 25:41 that when He comes back to judge this world He will say to
those on His left hand: +"Depart from me, ye cursed into the eternal
fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels."+ Hell was not
prepared for men, but for the Devil and his angels. If any man goes
there it will be because he has chosen to cast in his lot with the
Devil rather than with God. Therefore they go where the Devil goes.
Every one who rejects Jesus Christ is throwing in his lot with the
Devil.