Fordtunate Son

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Religious Pron: Book of Rev (23 of?); Ch 20 - Satan in Jail for 1000 Years

Dec 30, 2024, 4:56 PM

We’re getting pretty close to the end of the Book of Revelation as the New Year approaches. So far, God has finished up his part of the earth’s destruction with 7 Seals, 7 Trumpets, and 7 Cups of Wrath. God’s war on Evil.

Next, Jesus defeats Satan’s army at Armageddon and throws the Beast of the Sea and the Beast of the Land into the burning Lake of Sulfur.

Rev 19:20
“…The beast was captured, and with it the false prophet [second beast]…The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur.”

Har Megiddo (Armageddon) and the beautiful Jezreel Valley

And now, God and Jesus have to tie up a few loose ends. Nothing personal…it’s just business.

Rev 19:20
“[Then,] The rest [of Satan’s army] were killed…”

That leaves the Arch-Villain himself as the last evil to be dealt with.

And Jesus is up to the task.

Rev 20:2
“He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.”

Just look at that crumbled church in the background!

I find it interesting that even in The End it’s still all about ‘nations,’ for the ancient Jews and early Christians. The angel could have told John, ‘to keep Satan from deceiving people,’ but he said, ‘to keep Satan from deceiving nations.’

That gives us some insight into the tight-knit collective these ancients viewed themselves as at the time. After all, the Jews aren’t the chosen ‘individuals,’ they are the chosen ‘people.’ Even today, it’s said that the purest form of true communism is the Jewish kibbutz, or ‘collective farm’ of a few hundred people. There are about 250 of them in Israel today, with containing about 2% of the nation’s population.

A Jewish Kibbutz and surrounding farms.

Since you have to thank God for everything, you own nothing in a kibbutz; no furniture, no vehicles, no tools, not even the clothes on your back. Everything is communal…from work to meals to the raising of the children. All is for your fellow man and the glory of God. Do unto others…

Nations and communes and kibbutzim aside, the more curious thing about the previous verse is the 1000-year prison sentence. Why not just destroy Satan like Jesus destroyed the two beasts? Why only a 1000-year sentence and not for eternity? I have no idea.

And sadly, as far as I know, there’s not much other documentation to explain it. Whatever explanation there may have been seems to be lost to history until some more Dead Sea or Nag Hamadi scrolls are dug up.

Excavations in Nag Hammadi, Egypt (Nag Hammadi means ‘geese grazing grounds’)

The Nag Hammadi Library – nothing short of a religious, philosophical, and anthropological gold mine.

But we’re not completely cut off from information on that 1000-year prison sentence. There is an apocryphal text that offers some clues. Remember that apocryphal doesn’t mean heretical, it just means ‘extra.’ So it’s not rejected by the Church, it’s just for nerds who can’t get enough of arcane details, like me.

And for the Ethiopian church, which does consider some apocrypha to be canonical. In this case, the Book of Enoch.

The Book of Enoch was not unknown to early Christian writers, and here, Jude even quotes from it:

Jude 1:14
“Enoch…prophesied about them: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed…”

Jude

The Book of Enoch is pretty long, about 60 chapters or so, and it’s kind of like a Reader’s Digest version of the Bible. It’s a lot of the same stories, just told from a different perspective, and with different details. The story we’re interested in, though, is when Enoch, like John of Patmos, gets a tour of Heaven.

To make a pretty long story short, Enoch (Noah’s great-grandfather) wanders around Heaven with his angel guide asking questions about what he sees. And one of the things he sees is some imprisoned angels – na’er-do-well types:

“Then [Enoch] said: "For what sin are they bound?..." Then Uriel [the chief angel] said "…These are of the number of the stars of heaven, which have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, and are bound here till ten thousand years..."

Baretta lays it out

Then Enoch sees some lesser angels.

“And from thence I went to another place, which was still more horrible than the former…” Then Uriel said unto me: "Enoch, why hast thou such fear and affright?" And I answered: "Because of this fearful place, and because of the spectacle of the pain." And [Uriel] said unto me: "This place is the prison of the angels, and here they will be imprisoned for ever."

“Boys, we got us a cage that will hold you!” A prison in Heaven.

What we learn in the story is that a group of angels who were supposed to come down to earth and teach mankind skills like farming and blacksmithing, instead got up to all kinds of no good, dipped into the honey-pot, and stole mortal men’s wimmen.

Bad angels! The Book of Enoch calls them The Watchers.

The children those bad angels had with mortal women were called the Nephilim, and they are briefly referred to in Genesis 6:2

“…the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.”

And the Nephilim may be referred to in a few other verses, as well.

Enoch’s story goes on to imply that angels are given prison terms for bad deeds; shorter ones for higher ranked angels, and longer ones for lesser ranked angels. Details on the sentencings are scarce, but we do know of these:

Crime: Seggs with human women;
Punishment for Lesser Angels: Imprisonment for all of Eternity (from The Book of Enoch)

Crime: Seggs with human women;
Punishment for Higher Angels: Imprisonment for 10,000 years (from The Book of Enoch)

Crime: Repeatedly tempting mankind to sin, serving as ringleader for all Bad Seeds
Punishment for Satan: 1,000 years (from Revelation)

“Hey kids, don’t fight the law. Even Satan goes to jail, you think you won’t?”

We don’t know much more about the Heavenly Criminal Justice System, but apparently, once angels serve their time they are free to go. Maybe on to another mission from God.

Rev 20:3
“After that [Satan’s 1000 years], he must be set free for a short time.”

Note that that’s not ‘can’ or ‘may;’ that’s ‘must’ be set free. Why? Idk.

In any event, it’s not God alone who is judging. Again, we don’t have many details, but those 24 Elders in Heaven do something other than just sit there. Maybe they judge angels but not people. There’s a lot of mysteries in Heaven.

Rev 20:4
“I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge.”

Another strange aspect of heavenly justice is that that people who were persecuted by Rome get priority treatment during the resurrection. Why? Idk. I guess the rest of us are just SOL.

Rev 20:4
“And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus...They had not worshiped the beast…They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection.”

So there seems to be a 1000-year ‘pre-camp’ for priority resurrectees before God and New Jerusalem descend from the heavens. Sort of like when the teenage counselors convene early at summer camp to set the place up before the younger kids arrive later in the summer.

Rev 20:6
“Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.” [before Satan is released again.]

But again, that only seems to be for those who died from Roman persecution. And who do they reign over if no one else is resurrected yet? Maybe the 144k that were spared God’s wrath, along with the city of Philadelphia? Surely John knew what he meant, but how can we decipher it? More mystery.

The beheading of St. Paul, in Bologna, Italy

In the world of Roman executions, beheading was considered the most humane punishment and was reserved for Roman citizens, like Paul. Crucifixion was the most shameful way to die. Prisoners and slaves were seen as little more than animals themselves, and so were sentenced to death by animals, accordingly.

And the harshest punishment of all, for the crime of killing one’s parent, was to be tied nude in a leather sack with assorted animals like snakes, dogs, and roosters, and then thrown into the Tiber to drown.

That’s worse than throwing a cat in the shower with someone. Whoa.

Not to mention the shame of dying to a chicken.

Anyway, Satan’s coming back, per the rules, and when he does, it’s gonna be hell to pay. But we’ll pay that bill next time, in the penultimate installment of Religion Pron: The Book of Revelation.

Till then, hot chicks.

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I do actually have a long-term plan, as I find the time.

Right now I'm reading the Koran, and hope to have a series of posts on it coming up. Nothing like the 25 posts on Revelation, though. That all developed from a remark someone made on the board about Revelation last fall that really piqued my interest. So I kind of dropped everything to get into it. I thought, "You know, that book has baffled me for about 40 years...I'm gonna go back and take another, closer look."

I'm also hoping to get to the development of the early Church, say 100-300, and all the Christology debates. My favorite period is the 1st Century AD, but the 2nd-4th also have some really, really interesting stuff going on as Rome, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Alexandria all try to figure it out and get on the same page.

Tied to that would be some stuff on Gnosticism. And as a total black sheep I'll toss in Mormonism. My best friend growing up was a Mormon, so I spent a lot of time around Mormons and know a bunch of tangential stuff, but I've never read the Book of Mormon in full. I find it fascinating because it is unabashedly a 'modern' American Religion, as opposed to an ancient Middle Eastern religion, though there is certainly an influence. The central premise is that when Jesus left Israel, he came to America and became the Great White Spirit to the natives here. Very American.

As related to Enoch specifically, I'm thinking of doing a few short posts on Book of Enoch, Book of Jubilees, and Book of The Life of Adam and Eve. It's all apocryphal stuff, but it shows how people always want more information. A few months ago I did some posts on The Infancy Gospels. People back then wanted to know about Jesus's life before his ministry, when he was a child, and so other people explained it. It's amazing what all is out there, just not commonly read today. Back then, it was much more commonly known, at least withing the church and abbey circuit.

So Enoch et al. will probably come pretty soon, while I learn to be a Muslim, lol. And of course, I never know what comment someone might make that sends me off on a random investigative tangent. There have been some really great discussions here and who knows what will come up.

And then, there's the other side of the world and the Eastern Religions...

But, those are some of the things I'd like to get to.

Religious Pron: Book of Rev (23 of?); Ch 20 - Satan in Jail for 1000 Years

Here is how I deal with Revelation, the beast, the false prophet and all...

Re: Here is how I deal with Revelation, the beast, the false prophet and all...

That brings a new idea in the discussion.

God's absence from h-e-l-l is debatable

You'll get no debate from me.

Re: You'll get no debate from me.

Re: You'll get no debate from me.

Agree

When do you do the left out parts?

Re: When do you do the left out parts?

Re: Religious Pron: Book of Rev (23 of?); Ch 20 - Satan in Jail for 1000 Years

Re: Religious Pron: Book of Rev (23 of?); Ch 20 - Satan in Jail for 1000 Years

I'd love to see Hollywood take that story and run with it.

Re: I'd love to see Hollywood take that story and run with it.

Then maybe some stuff on the Anunnaki.

Re: Then maybe some stuff on the Anunnaki.

That's almost enough to make me order a Russian bride online.

TigerBoard POTD

Relig­­ious Pron: Book of Rev (23 of?); Ch 20 - Satan in Jail for 1000 Years

Here is how I deal with Revelation, the beast, the false prophet and all...

Re: Here is how I deal with Revelation, the beast, the false prophet and all...

That brings a new idea in the discussion.

God's absence from h-e-l-l is debatable

You'll get no debate from me.

Re: You'll get no debate from me.

Re: You'll get no debate from me.

Agree

When do you do the left out parts?

Re: When do you do the left out parts?

Re: Relig­­ious Pron: Book of Rev (23 of?); Ch 20 - Satan in Jail for 1000 Years

Re: Relig­­ious Pron: Book of Rev (23 of?); Ch 20 - Satan in Jail for 1000 Years

I'd love to see Hollywood take that story and run with it.

Re: I'd love to see Hollywood take that story and run with it.

Then maybe some stuff on the Anunnaki.

Re: Then maybe some stuff on the Anunnaki.

That's almost enough to make me order a Russian bride online.

TigerBoard POTD

Religious Pron: Book of Rev (23 of?); Ch 20 - Satan in Jail for 1000 Years

Re: Religious Pron: Book of Rev (23 of?); Ch 20 - Satan in Jail for 1000 Years

Re: Religious Pron: Book of Rev (23 of?); Ch 20 - Satan in Jail for 1000 Years