A Good Question – My Response
On Facebook and YouTube, where I post my Morning Musings Videos, I often receive any number of questions and comments. To be honest, many of the comments are so totally biased and prejudicial, springing from the querists personal agenda, not to mention irrelevant to the subject of the video, that I don’t bother responding. (Some posters adamantly refuse to comment only on the subject of the video, as I repeatedly request, choosing instead to promote their own agenda). However, often some good serious Bible student poses a really good question that is worthy of time and consideration.
Just recently, one such question was posed by a man that I respect a great deal, although we are on somewhat different pages eschatologically. Here is that question:
To support the view that the false prophet and the beast are corporate symbols of apostate Israel and Rome, one must explain how they could be cast into the lake of fire in AD 70, as Revelation 19:20 says, while also being tormented there during the entire millennium, which began with Christ’s binding of Satan in Matthew 12:29, as Revelation 20:10 implies. Is this a case of progressive or partial judgment? How can this apparent contradiction be resolved from a postmillennial or amillennial partial preterist perspective?’
So, the question seems to be, partly, were the beast and false prophet cast into the lake at the parousia in AD 70 – or at the binding of Satan in Matthew 12.
Here is the response that I offered.
The question seems to be based on the idea that Revelation 19 and 20 are sequential and NOT recapitulatory. However, many noted scholars, e.g. G. K. Beale, suggested, persuasively, that this is not the case. So, if Revelation 20 is recapitulating chapter 19 this means that the Beast and the Prophet were not after all, already in the Lake, but chapter 20 is re-emphasizing / re-stating that at the coming of the Lord and the judgment, Satan, the Beast and the Prophet are all cast into the Lake at the same time.
While objection would be made that many translations render 20:17 to say that the Beast and Prophet were (already there), there are others who suggest otherwise. So, if chapter 20 is in fact recapitulatory- as I certainly hold – then one might consider that 20:17 as an elliptical statement saying that they too were thrown there at the same time as Satan. I. E. “Satan was thrown into the lake where also the Beast and the prophet were (were thrown– meaning they were thrown there at the same time).”
To add to this by way of confirmation, consider this: Paul, in 1 Corinthians 15 said that the time of the end would be when the last enemy would be put down at the parousia and resurrection. Revelation 19 is the parousia (which is the time of the end resurrection when the last enemy is put down) and it is the time of the end when the Beast and the prophet were cast into the fire.
In Revelation 20 we have the destruction of the last enemy – after the millennium.
Therefore, Revelation 20 is recapitulatory of Revelation 19, and the parousia, the casting of the Beast and the Prophet were cast into the Lake, the time of the end when the last enemy would be put down, was at the end of the millennium.
Here is a hypothetical syllogism to express things a bit differently:
If it is true – and it is true – that Revelation 19 is the parousia of Christ,
And If it is true – and it is true – that the last enemy is put down at the parousia
Then, It must be true that the casting of the Beast and the Prophet into the Lake of Fire in Revelation– at the parousia of Christ was when the last enemy was put down. ************************************************************************
If is true – and it is true – that the casting of the Beast and the Prophet into the Lake of Fire in Revelation– at the parousia of Christ was when the last enemy was put down, (It is, after all, when the great persecutor, Satan and Babylon are destroyed, Revelation 12 & 18-19),
And, If it is true – and it is true – that the destruction of death– the last enemy- takes place at the end of the Millennium (per Revelation 20:10f),
Then, It must be true that the parousia – and the casting of the Beast and Prophet into the fire– of Revelation 19 takes place at the end of the Millennium, at the parousia of Christ.
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The last enemy – death – is put down at the time of the resurrection at the parousia of Christ (1 Cor. 15).
Revelation 19 is the parousia of Christ.
But the last enemy – death – is put down at the end of the millennium- Revelation 20:10f.
Therefore, the parousia of Christ of Revelation 19 – when the Beast and the Prophet are cast into the Lake of Fire – occurs at the end of the Millennium.
My conclusion is that the underlying assumption that Revelation 20 chronologically follows Revelation 19 is misplaced and inaccurate. Thus, while the question has the appearance of posing a serious challenge, when the underlying assumption is carefully considered and shown to be false, the entire argument falls to the ground.