Revelation: Chapter 20 Timelines
Setting
Revelation 20:1-15, in just a few verses, provides great insight to significant events that occur over a long period of time. These events are shown in the graphic below and do not necessarily indicate precisely the time of when the events occur along the timeline. This non-linear view is due to the limitations in the size of the arrows, which make it difficult to show their near simultaneous occurrence. The synoptic views of the events that occur sequentially are:
- Satan is thrown into the bottomless pit for a 1,000 years. This event actually occurs at the very beginning of the millennial reign of Christ, but the arrow indicating this event is located where it is on this chart because it is as close to the beginning of the millennium on the aggregate chart below as the physical limitations of the chart will allow without obscuring all of the other previous information
- The next event is the millennial reign of Christ shown by the horizontal blue arrow. The length of the arrow in comparison to the seven years of tribulation or the church age is not drawn to scale. If it were, the church age arrow would be twice as long as the millennial part of the timeline, and the tribulation would appear as a very small sliver on the horizontal timeline. This asymmetric display in the timeline is a reflection of the amount of attention that God has given to the events revealed to John, through Jesus Christ, and then to His angel, Revelation 1:1; two chapters in Revelation describe the church age, then 15 chapters describe the seven years of tribulation, one chapter the millennial reign of Jesus Christ, and two chapters the beginning of the future eternity
- The next event shown on the graphic is the release of Satan at the end of the millennium. After a short time Satan will lead a final rebellion against the Lord, and then he will be thrown into the lake of fire. A separate red block is attached to this arrow head to illustrate that this rebellion is not just Satan, but also the innumerable multitude of those living on earth at the end of the millennium who join in Satan's rebellion against the Lord
- The great white throne judgment is represented by the black arrow
- Though not part of the book of Revelation, Peter revealed that there would be a time when the heavens would pass away with a great noise, the elements shall melt with fervent heat, and the earth with all its archeological evidences of mankind's activities, will be burned up, 2Peter 3:7-14. This transition to the new heaven and new earth takes place between Revelation 20:1-15 and Revelation 21:1-27, Revelation 21:1.
The next chart highlights the complete defeat of Satan.
This chart shows the second resurrection and the great white throne judgement.
This last set of charts is what Peter wrote, concerning the burning up of the heavens and earth.
The events described in Revelation 20:1-15 are shown in the following graph, imbeded with all the events revealed to John in the book of Revelation up to this moment.
