Bible Questions with Michael Pearl
Episode 056: Why is Satan released after 1000 year reign of Christ?

Episode Transcription:

Michael Pearl:  Hi. I'm Michael Pearl, and Jared has followed me up here where I'm working on my house to answer some Bible questions for you. So, I'm tickled to be here and hear what you've been asking, see if we can come up with some answers.

Sarah:  Hi, this is Sarah, and I'm in Leadville, Colorado. I was reading in the Bible and it was talking about how Satan's going to be released after the thousand year reign of Christ, and I was just wondering, why's he going to be released and who is he going to torment? So, anyways, thank you.

Michael:  All right, that's a good question. I like that. Now, to broaden your question, you've asked why is Satan going to be released after the thousand years. Let me broaden the question and say why is he here to begin with? Why, after sinning, did God allow Satan to come into the garden and tempt Eve? Why did God drive Jesus into the wilderness, the Holy Spirit to be tempted of the devil? Why does he allow us to be tempted today? If you answer those questions, you've answered your question. In other words, God works all things after the counsel of his own will, and as Joseph said, "You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good."

This entire experience, this human experience that we're having, is one of test and growth, maturity, character building. It's a competition between the flesh and the spirit, between good and evil, between light and darkness. You see, without competition, there can't be any winners, there can't be any overcomers.

Without Satan, without darkness, without the flesh, without sin and temptation, then we can't grow and develop in character. Character comes from experience, and experience to build character must have positive choices and negative choices placed before us on a daily basis, and when we make the right choice, we make the choice for holiness and goodness and love and purity, then we grow in character.

So, God has us on this Earth, this whole experience is something God designed and created to build us up to be sons of God and daughters of God, so to be fit and worthy in his kingdom.

So, during the millennial reign of Christ, there's going to be a time period there when there's going to be perfect peace upon the Earth, where Christ will reign and rule. There won't be any pornography shops, there won't be any porno on the Web, there won't be any hard liquor sold, there won't be any fighting or rioting, or anybody that commits a crime of any sort will be executed.

I mean, it's going to be a theocracy with angels overseeing, with resurrected saints in glorified bodies ruling and reigning over cities, who have gifts of understanding and teleportation and travel and wisdom and divine knowledge and mind, so there's no way anyone can get away with anything during the millennial reign of Christ. It will last a thousand years, and there will still be people in natural bodies.

Now, you and I will be in supernatural bodies like Christ was after his resurrection, not capable of sickness, death, disease, or temptation, but there will be people who survive the tribulation: The Jews, and there will be gentile nations.

In the book of Matthew, it speaks of God dividing the sheep from the goats in the nations and placing them in millennium. It talks about the apostles. He said that "those of you that have been faithful with me in the regeneration", he said, "you will sit on 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel." He said that he will grant us to rule over one city, two cities, five cities, ten cities, based on our faithfulness.

So definitely be a thousand year theocracy, a kingdom of heaven upon the Earth where God will rule, and people in natural bodies that survived who will have babies. The Bible said the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing. So the millennium will have lots of children in it.

Now, at the end of that thousand years, think about it, you had people who were in a Garden of Eden paradise, not permitted even the temptation that Eve had and that Adam had when they were in the Garden of Eden, and they're all outwardly Christians. They're all outwardly faithful believers in God.

They've all been consistent with the kingdom for a thousand years, but the fact is, outward circumstances doesn't make a pure heart, and so, at the end of the millennium, God is going to release Satan so that he can perform a task of separating again the sheep from the goats.

Now, the way he's going to do that is he's going to go up and he's going to work in the spirits and hearts of men all over the whole world, and he's going to tempt and woo them. He's going to tell them that if they will march with him, and, of course, it won't be Satan in a fleshly body, it will be some character, some figure, some personality that's prominent and well-known in the millennium, maybe a mayor or President or head of some country, and he will promise the people that they will be able to take Christ off the throne in Jerusalem and set up their own kingdoms and have more liberty and more freedom.

In other words, he'll offer them a left‑wing, socialist, progressive, liberal society where they have more freedom to indulge the flesh, and there will be a large number of people, great, great number of people, who will buy into it, say yeah, and they'll march against Jerusalem. They'll come by the hundreds and thousands, and maybe the hundreds of thousands and millions, they'll come against Jerusalem. And the Bible tells us that when they surround the throne there, there's not too big a do. God just [makes noise] , fire comes down from Heaven, wipes them out.

And so, the Earth has been purged of sinners, who are not sinners outwardly, but sinners in their heart. So, the purpose in that event in the millennium is the same purpose and the very presence of Satan and temptation today. The Bible says every man is tempted when he's drawn away of his own lust and enticed.

When lust is conceived, it brings forth sin. When sin is finished, it brings forth death. And also there in the book of James, he says that...Let's see, how does he say that? To the promise to those that love him. I can't remember the verse. 1:9, I believe. He speaks of us overcoming temptation, those that love him. So the way that we overcome temptation is the fact that we love God more than we do sin, more than we do our flesh.

So, I think that covers the subject. If it doesn't, shoot it at us again.

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