When Satan is released before the second coming for a little season then so is the beast, and Satan's minions. We see the devils in Revelation 9:2-3, the beast in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-12, Revelation 11:7 and Revelation 17:8, and Satan in Revelation 9:10-11 and Revelation 20:3 all being released before the second coming for a little season. Then comes the end! But Christ comes in majestic and eternal glory to overthrow the kingdom of darkness forever. The demonic realm is all killed when Satan is destroyed at the climactic second coming (Isaiah 26:19-27:1, 2 Thessalonians 2:8, Revelation 19:20, 20:9-10).
None of those verses outside of Revelation mention a little season. Nothing in Revelation 20 speaks of demons released for a little season. That is you adding to the text. John does not imply those locust are for a "little season".
"And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented
five months."
"and their power was to hurt men
five months."
Talk about giving a literal time frame a symbolic interpretation called "little season". Do you not accuse others of making something literal, symbolic; and making something symbolic, literal?
Demons have been active on the earth since the Flood. When has that activity ever stopped for a prolonged period of time? The demonic realm does not even have a physical presence to be killed. Demons are not even killed when tosses into the LOF. How can you kill a spirit that has never once been physical to begin with?
You have yet to produce a single verse where Satan is loosed for a little season prior to the Second Coming.
I agree that the "kingdom of darkness" is removed at the timing of the Second Coming. The kingdom of darkness is the punishment for Adam's disobedience. The bondage of death and sin on creation. I would not use the term kingdom of darkness myself.
That would be the sentiment of:
"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."
The first manifestation was prior to the Flood when the sons of God and their adamic offspring reprobated themselves with overwhelming wickedness. It was the spirits of those wicked prior to the Flood that became the demonic forces after the Flood. Then Noah's offspring of sinners could not stay righteous by their own initiatives, so they also succumbed to wicked desires also reprobating their spirits into the demonic realm. The reasoning Paul gives in Romans 1 eventually happens over and over after times of revival, and then backsliding back into sin.
That is the time declared over in Revelation 10, not physical time itself. The time of Adam's punishment is over. The time of creation under the bondage of the curse is over at the 7th Trumpet. The time of wicked sinners on the earth is over.
That means that at the end of Revelation 20 there are no wicked sinners, period. That time ended over 1,000 years prior before the Day of the Lord. So the only little season Satan gets is 1,000 years after the Second Coming. One more chance to deceive humans who are not wicked sinners, but those abiding under the Law of God without disobedience.
It is you who forces one's interpretation into the text to make it say what you want it to say, even making up your own chronological order to make your interpretation make any sense, even though it contradicts what John actually wrote.
Your argument is circular saying that Revelation 17-19 corroborates Revelation 20 because they are not in chronological order, and they are not in chronological order because Revelation 17-19 corroborates Revelation 20. Both points your man made interpretation of what was written.
We know that a third of the angels are released from chains of darkness on the day of Judgment. Jude 1:6
"And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day."
This corroborates Revelation 12:4 and Revelation 9:2-3
"And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth."
"And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth."
Satan turned a third of the stars against God. They have been bound in the pit until the 5th Trumpet judgment. They were loosed as the 1st woe upon mankind. By the 7th Trumpet they have attacked heaven itself and have to be cast out of heaven one last time. Point out in that explanation anything I have personally added to Scripture or into the text.
In Revelation 12 we see a glimpse of many activities over time. Israel, Satan, and the birth of Jesus. Satan influencing a third of the stars. An attack by those stars against Michael:
"And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him."
Is this: "And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth." in the same time frame as this: "Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him." ?
Or did the 5th Trumpet sound between the two events given in Revelation 12? When was Jesus born in relationship to: "And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth." ?
Do we not have to take the whole of Scripture into consideration when interpreting Revelation 12? Revelation 12 is not a recap of the inter-advent period as you seem to insinuate. Revelation 12 includes ideas from the rebellion of Satan to the image of Daniel 2, and 5 earthly kingdoms or world empires starting with Babylon and ending at the Reformation. Obviously overlapping the OT and the NT. The Second Coming is not even implied to nor stated in Revelation 12. Revelation 13 is a follow up of that 7 headed dragon with a different angle of perception.
Satan is never said to have 7 dispensations of spiritual kingdoms. If you are against dispensational teaching, that would be ultra dispensational thought, beyond human government. We don't have to add to Revelation 12, we just continue to unravel this symbolism in Revelation 13 and in Revelation 17. We don't even have to force a Second Coming into chapters where the Second Coming would not belong in, to begin with. Yet you think John wants us to see 7 different views of the Second Coming in the book of Revelation.
Certainly one could attempt to place the Second Coming into Revelation 12, but obviously another may not agree on the placement as one is not purposely stated for clarity.
Revelation 12 is the only place something similar to a little season is given:
"Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that
he hath but a short time."
It is not even similar in thought nor context. The only thing similar is private interpretation of "short" and "little".
In Revelation 12 the context is the 3rd woe closely tied to the 7th Trumpet. Satan is not loosed from a pit, but cast out of heaven, so not the same context. The 1st woe is tied to the 5th Trumpet and releasing those rebel angels into the world. The 5th Trumpet and 7th Trumpet are not even the same event. The Trumpets and woes have to be your private interpretation added into the text of Revelation 20. Why would the earth need to have judgment after a thousand years of Jesus reigning over a regenerated earth?
