One of the most significant facts about the Coming Golden Age is the total absence of Satan. The world will be free of his provocations for 365,250 days—a thousand devil-free years! John told us in Revelation 20 that the devil will be bound with chains he cannot escape and consigned to a prison he cannot avoid for a thousand years.
When Jesus returns to set up His Millennial Kingdom, an angel will come from heaven. John described him as “having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished” (Revelation 20:1-3). Notice the prison to which the devil is destined: “the bottomless pit.”
The 'bottomless pit,' or abyss, serves as God's supermax prison for evil spirits, confining them during Christ's reign.
The term “bottomless pit” is better translated as “abyss” because the Greek word John used was abyssos, meaning “a very deep place.” This is God’s supermax prison for evil spirits. It isn’t hell. That will be the devil’s final destiny. But for a thousand years, Satan will be banished from earth and imprisoned in this mysterious penitentiary.
For a thousand years, Satan will be bound and banished from earth, marking the dawn of a devil-free era.
The book of Jude says, “And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day” (verse 6, NIV). For reasons only God knows, He allowed the devil and some of the evil spirits to travel around earth’s atmosphere and cause trouble, but in mercy to us He imprisoned some of these principalities and powers in the abyss.
The future promise of Satan's incarceration provides comfort today, reminding us of the power and victory through Jesus Christ.
Remember when Jesus cast the demons out of the man in Luke 8? Those demons “begged Jesus repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss” (verse 31, NIV). It was a place they dreaded. During the trumpet judgments in Revelation 9, an angel will open the shaft leading down to the abyss and release these malignant and heinous demons. They will swarm the earth, terrorizing its inhabitants. This will happen during the Tribulation. Thankfully, after those seven years, all demons will be reincarcerated in the abyss along with Satan himself.
During the Millennial reign of Christ, we who live and govern with Him on earth will be delivered from Satan’s tyranny!
We may only be seven years away from the moment when God will throw Satan into the abyss and slam the door after him. The knowledge of that future promise should comfort us today. Though Satan is active, he cannot overcome the power of the cross of Jesus Christ and our Lord’s resurrection. Even now, we’re to live in victory.
