It is important to realize that Satan is not in Hell right now.  There are several verses that speak to us of Satan’s activities today.  1 Peter 5:8 says, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.”  1 John 5:19 says, “We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” (NASB).  Ephesians 2:2, “Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.”

Satan walks among the people of the earth, and he is the prince of the power of the air.  In 2 Corinthians 4:4 he is called “the god of this world.”  This powerful enemy is quite busy, but there will come a day when he will be imprisoned.  God will not permit him to rule forever. We learn from reading Revelation 20:1-3, “And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.” 

At the end of the seven-year Tribulation, the Lord Jesus will return to set up His millennial kingdom on the earth.  We have this period prophesied in Isaiah 32:1, “Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment.”  For one thousand years, Satan will be bound, he will be cast into the bottomless pit, and he will be confined there “that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled.”  This bottomless pit is translated from the word ‘abyssos’ and is referred to as ‘the deep’ in Luke 8:31 and Romans 10:7. It is called a ‘prison’ in Revelation 20:7 and it is distinguished from hell or the lake of fire and brimstone in verse 10.

Throughout the Lord’s 1,000-year reign, Satan will not be permitted to roam the earth to tempt or deceive anyone.  It is at the end of this millennial kingdom that Satan will be freed “a little season.”  We are not told the length of this little season, but it does not seem to take Satan long before he has formed an army of people to once again engage the Lord Jesus in battle.  We read in Revelation 20:7-8, “And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.” 

Immediately after being released, Satan sets out to deceive the nations.  John 8:44 tells us that Satan, “is a liar, and the father of it.”  With his lies, he is able to gather many, many people in his final rebellion against the Lord.  Who are these people who lived in the magnificent time of the Lord’s reign upon the earth, but would still defy Him and try to defeat Him?  We must remember that for 1,000 years as the Lord reigned that many people were born…and no one is born saved.  Sin is still in the heart of the natural man and many will turn against the Lord in spite of His goodness and love.  We see the end result of this rebellion in Revelation 20:9, “And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.”

For Satan’s final judgment, we read in Revelation 20:10, “And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.”  Satan does not rule in hell.  No, forever he will be ‘tormented day and night for ever and ever” in that terrible lake of fire. 

My dear friends, I trust that none of you will follow Satan in his rebellion and hatred against the Lord.  He has learned to lure people away from believing in the Lord by making the world so attractive.  In 2 Corinthians 11:14 we read, “And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.”  His appearance is so appealing to so many.  Do not be fooled.  Satan is, indeed, a liar.  We need to follow the One who is the truth (John 14:6).  (450.6)