March 28, 2025 | Silver Spring, Maryland, United States | Ted N.C. Wilson, President, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists
Hello, friends. As you know, we have been looking at what will happen when Jesus comes— this momentous event will be an incredible day for Christ’s followers but will be a most horrific day for those who have rejected Him. As described in Jeremiah 25:33, “And at that day the slain of the Lord shall be from one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth. They shall not be lamented, or gathered, or buried. . .” (NKJV).
In The Great Controversy, we read this detailed description: “The whole earth appears like a desolate wilderness. The ruins of cities and villages destroyed by the earthquake, uprooted trees, ragged rocks thrown out by the sea or torn out of the earth itself, are scattered over its surface, while vast caverns mark the spot where the mountains have been rent from their foundations” (The Great Controversy, p. 657).
It is amid this vast wasteland Satan and his evil angels will be banished for a thousand years. This is in fulfillment of the event foreshadowed in the final service of the Day of Atonement that we read about in Chapter 23 of The Great Controversy, titled “What is the Sanctuary?” I encourage you to re-read that chapter, or if you do not yet have the book, you may download it at thegreatcontroversyproject.org [Insert: thegreatcontroversyproject.org].
The Bible tells us that, just like the scapegoat being banished to the wilderness on the day of atonement, Satan will be banished to the desolated wilderness of the earth. After describing the scenes of Christ’s second coming and the destruction of the wicked, John the Revelator writes:
“Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while” (Rev. 20:1-3, NKJV).
You might wonder, how do we know “the bottomless pit” refers to the earth in a state of confusion and darkness? Well, the Bible describes what the earth was like in the beginning. We read in Genesis 1: “The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep” (vs. 2). It is interesting that in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, known as the Septuagint, the Hebrew word translated here as “deep” is the same word translated as “bottomless pit” in Revelation 20. And prophecy teaches that the earth will be brought back, partially at least, to this condition.
The prophet Jeremiah saw this future event in vision and declared: “I beheld the earth, and indeed it was without form, and void; and the heavens, they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and indeed they trembled, and all the hills moved back and forth. I beheld, and indeed there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens had fled. I beheld, and indeed the fruitful land was a wilderness, and all its cities were broken down at the presence of the Lord, by His fierce anger” (Jeremiah 4:23-26, NKJV).
What will Satan be doing in such a desolate place? We read in The Great Controversy:
“Here is to be the home of Satan with his evil angels for a thousand years. Limited to the earth, he will not have access to other worlds to tempt and annoy those who have never fallen. . . .
“For a thousand years, Satan will wander to and fro in the desolate earth to behold the results of his rebellion against the law of God. During this time his sufferings are intense. Since his fall his life of unceasing activity has banished reflection; but he is now deprived of his power and left to contemplate the part which he has acted since first he rebelled against the government of heaven, and to look forward with trembling and terror to the dreadful future when he must suffer for all the evil that he has done and be punished for the sins that he has caused to be committed.”
Yes, friends, a day is coming when Satan and sin will be destroyed forever, and God’s redeemed will live forever with Him. What a day that will be!
I invite you to pray with me just now.
Father in heaven, thank you for the clear understanding from the word of God and the spirit of prophecy regarding what will happen during the 1,000 years when Satan will be banished and secluded here on this Earth, a desolate place. Lord, we long for the day when sin and the devil and his angels will be completely gone. There will never again be any sign of sin, for you will banish it forever. Thank you, Lord, for the words that we read that give us assurance that our future is secure in Jesus. And we ask all of this in the powerful, wonderful name of our savior, our high priest, and our coming King, Jesus Christ. Amen.