Chapter 20
God is the God of perfect justice and love; according to the justice He loves man, according to the justice He blesses, and according to the justice He fight for man.
The justice does not indicate a dictatorial way, but it is the justice to establish the law and execute it for public righteousness. Therefore, for the justice necessarily needs its target, God made a crafty serpent enabling it to stand against men so that it should fight men concerning the God’s law.
The serpent was made in purpose to be able to craftily deceive man as much as possible, and man was given the right to act as far as histrue conscience allows.
God acknowledges man’s truth according to whether man absolutely obeys the Word of God. Therefore, it is the law of God that man can overcome the devil as long as he is true, and otherwise he would be defeated.
Therefore, the crafty serpent in Genesis 3:1 had the purpose to put into man the thought that the Word of God is not true. This is the ability of the crafty serpent’s act.
Considering the word of the crafty serpent as true, rather than the Word of God, brought a seed of death. The world has become the world which believes the word of the devil is true, and doesn’t believe in the Word of God.
The root of the darkness is the serpent and the root of the light is God; not believing the Word of God as it is, is the darkness. God uses the serpent, the authority of the darkness, to test whether man truly believes in His Word or not.
After the crafty serpent won the victory and gained the authority, everyone who doesn’t believe the Word given in each Era has become the children of the devil. As the human history goes, there have been a few who truly believes and follows the Word of God, while there have been many who receive and follow the deception of the devil.
Therefore, God gives the servants the Word of the prophecy at the end, and He allows the devil – the red dragon, the beast, and the false prophet – to preclude man from obeying this Word. When the sincere ones stand firm believing undoubtedly in the Word until the end despite of any deception, God gives them the authority to destroy the followers of the word of devil; this is the authority of the witness at the end.
The white horse, whose Rider is called Faithful and True, refers to warriors who are holding the plumb line of Judgement of the end fighting against the devil: when the Kingdom on the earth is fulfilled through the warriors who have endured until the end and who have overcome by the Word, the world like in Chapter 18 will be burned and the force of the beast will be destroyed as in Chapter 19 and at the same time the force of the false prophet and the beast will completely disappear.
In other words, the victory of the 144,000 is to destroy the force of the beast and the false prophet, and the victory of the angels is to destroy the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan. (1~3)
But the angels fight for the sake of the saints who are to receive the kingship. The ones who will receive the kingship are not the angels; but the kingship will be given to those who had fought until beheaded because of the testimony of Jesus and because of the Word of God, and to those who have overcome after fighting against the beast and the false prophet at the end. (4)
The ones who haven’t overcome for their mission cannot partake in the first resurrection even if they are believers. Only those who have overcome will take part in the first resurrection and reign with Christ. (5~6)
First of all, the duration of the Kingdom on the earth is 1,000 years, and during these years the devil cannot make deception. But when the 1,000 years are completed, the old serpent Satan will be released again to deceive the nation in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war, and the number of them is like the sand of the seashore: the thousand-year Kingdom will be fulfilled through the remnant ones from the deception at the end of the era of Favor when the devil has tried to deceive those who are redeemed and believe in Jesus. At the end of the thousand-year Kingdom, the devil will attempt to deceive Gog and Magog, who are born in the Kingdom and whose population grows as much as the stars of the sky and the sand of the seashore.
These are the descendants of the ones who have heard the preaching of the witnesses of the end, who repented among Gentiles, and who entered the New Era after staying at the prepared place. Among them the number of those who are deceived will be like the sand. (7~8)
They surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and fire came down from heaven and devoured them; because they resist against the ones of the eternal kingship, God will consume them by fire and the devil who has deceived them will be too thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone. The beast and the false prophet who have tormented the saints in the end of the Era of Favor will be tormented forever and ever; this is the hell. (9~10)
This is the time for Judgement according to the deeds. The current heaven and earth will flee away, and Heavenly Kingdom – the eternal world and the splendid new heaven and earth – is fulfilled. Everyone whose name is written in the book of life will enter and be rewarded according to their deeds, and others will be punished according to their deeds. (11~15)