Bible Questions with Michael Pearl
Episode 037: Is Satan currently being held captive in heaven?

Episode Transcription:

Michael Pearl:  All right! Here we are in Tennessee, answering some Bible questions. It's a beautiful spring morning here in the middle of April and the buffalo are running down on the Tennessee River. So we go down and shoot them with a bow and arrow or dig them. This is a 41 pounder here and I am taking off the second side of here. For when the meat is good and white like this, it's really good to eat. A whole lot better than a carp would be. So if you ever get a chance to eat a buffalo, try it. Now, Jared got some Bible questions that you've sent in to us that I haven't seen. I have no idea what you are about to ask me. If I did, I had to spend a lot of time researching it and that would take up too much time so I go fishing, come in and then answer your questions. So Jared what is the first question you got there?

Jared:  I was recently listening to a preacher on the radio say that Satan is currently held captive in heaven and will be set free at the time of judgment. What's your take on this?

Michael:  That's about the dumbest question I've heard about in a long time. I'm glad you asked it since you got the question. I have no idea how that preacher could be that odd. I tell you what, if the devil is bound, we don't need a devil because we are doing pretty good creating sin and evil and wickedness with a bound devil. I hope he never gets loose. The Bible... That person would be an Amillennialist that is teaching that or some other cult, I have no idea. But it sounds like they are teaching that we are in the millennium right now because the Bible teaches that Satan will be bound for 1,000 years. And that after the 1,000 years he will be released out of his prison for a little season and he will go out and deceive the nations.

But at the beginning of the 1,000 years you got a rapture and seven years of tribulation. We haven't gone through any rapture and seven years of tribulation. If you don't believe in a rapture that is fine. You at least got to believe in a tribulation that precedes the... because the Bible speak of Jacob's troubles in the Old Testament. It speaks of a time of testing and trial. It's very clear in the scriptures that after that time of testing and trial that there will be a 1,000 year reign of Christ upon the earth.

If you look into the book of Revelation, the whole book of Revelation beginning in chapter four going through chapter 19 describes the Great Tribulation in detail. And then when you come to the end of Revelation 19, you got the second coming of Christ, coming back in power and great glory. It pictures in great detail the wonderful and glorious return of Christ. And then, when Christ has come back to the earth, it says that he has a great white throne judgment. When he sets up, calls all the sinners to come and be judged and he cast them in the lake of fire.

And Satan is loosed from his prison at the end of the 1,000 years. That says 1,000 years six times there in Revelation chapter 20. And all during the tribulation Satan is not bound, in Revelation 4‑19. In fact, the Bible speaks of four demons being released from the great river Euphrates to go out and bring men together to a great battle in the valley of Megiddo. And also it speaks of, as it were, scorpions coming out of the earth, creatures stinging and biting and it speaks in chapter 12 of the dragon being... Persecuting the man child.

So, the whole book of Revelation is full of Satan's presence upon the earth and the presence of devils and demons until the end of the tribulation and the beginning of the millennium. And then it says that Satan is bound for 1,000 years. And during the millennium there won't be any war, it says there won't be any war, they won't learn war anymore. Hey, that guy is rocking in a straight back chair. He is off his rocker. He didn't have the same Bible I've got.

I talked to a guy one time who denied he existed. It was pretty difficult to talk to him. And anybody who claims to have a Bible and believes that Satan is bound... Oh, how would you talk to him? OK.

Announcer:  If you would like to ask a Bible question, email us at [email protected] or call at 931‑805‑4820.