Revelation 9 - Lake Erie Bible Church

Chapter 9
THE REVELATION TO JOHN
F. Others (Charles, Ladd, Morris) note that there appears to be little difference
between the act of falling and descending and suggest that this is the same angel
that descends in Rev.20:1.
17. Those that lean on an elect angel such as in Rev.20:1 merely assumes that a fallen
angel would not be given a key to their own prison because they assume that the
angel was imprisoned to begin with.
18. This premise is not suggested here nor is it true that all fallen angels have been
imprisoned and/or reside in hell.
19. While those demons that violated their domain in the Gen.6:1ff account have been
incarcerated (2Pet.2:4-5; Jud.6), others are seen to remain free engaged in human and
angelic history to include Satan himself. Cp.Job 1:6ff; 1Pet.5:8; Mat.4:24; 7:22; 8:16
et al
20. A fallen angel makes the most sense and in fact, Satan is the best candidate as his
very history can be summarized by the term fallen:
A. His first fall from perfection came at the moment he demonstrated –V and
manufactured the first sin of pride. Eze.28:12,15
B. His second fall consisted of his demotion from the throne room when he was cast
forth as being profane. Eze.28:16b
C. His third fall occurs in connection with the fall of B P when he will be denied
further access to heaven and confined to planet earth. Rev.6:13; 9:1; 12:7-9,12
D. His fourth fall will come at the beginning of the Millennium when he will be
bound and cast into the abyss for 1000 years. Rev.20:1-3
E. His fifth and final fall comes at the end of the Millennium following the
Gog/Magog rebellion when he will be permanently confined to the lake of fire.
Rev.20:10
F. He will spend eternity in that prison being the most despised and abased creature
there. Isa.14:9-11, 15-17
21. While he currently has access to the 3 rd heaven for the purpose of accusing and
harassing believers, his permanent demotion to our planet results in a display of
incredible anger. Rev.12:12
22. The event of our verse takes place just following his ejection from heaven and
confinement to earth, at which time he is given the key of the bottomless pit that is
literally “the shaft of the abyss”.
23. The first term in the Greek text is “pit/f r e , a r – phrear” and refers to a deep narrow
hole in the earth and used of wells (Joh.4:11-12), while the second term “bottomless/
a ; b u s s o j – abussos”, transliterated as “abyss” and denotes the whole structure of
Hades/Sheol as to its very depths.
24. As to Sheol’s different compartments, the shaft of the abyss refers to the entrance of
the deepest or most remote part of Hades; the very place called Tartarus where the
fallen angels of Gen.6 have been chained in darkness.
25. The Greeks as well as the Jews viewed Tartarus as the subterranean region, dark and
foreboding, that was the abode of the evil dead already judged.
26. Further, they understood it as a place of utter darkness, an inescapable prison, and
those consigned to it are completely isolated and oblivious to the rest of the universe.
Lake Erie Bible Church
P-T Ken Reed
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