Timothy Jay Schwab who is The God Culture is off on a kick attempting to decipher Revelation 20. In a previous article his doctrine about the second resurrection was discussed. It was proven to be annihilistic, unbiblical, heretical, and a complete denial of the resurrection. This is because Tim teaches annihilationism which denies the wicked are punished in hell for eternity and there is no bodily resurrection for the righteous or the wicked. This new article, and the accompanying video, continues Tim's eisegesis of the text.
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| https://thegodculturephilippines.com/the-assumed-war-that-never-was/ |
7 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
i8 And shall go out to deceive the nations [intention?] which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog, and Magog, to gather them together to battle [intention?]: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea [Humans living outside New Jerusalem? Is that Bible doctrine?].
9 And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
– Revelation 20:7-10 KJV
I have highlighted in bold the problems Tim has with these verses. In a nutshell Tim is casts doubt on verse eight to promote his annihilistic position that the wicked will be destroyed all at once on the same day rather than be resurrected bodily and cast into the lake of fire where they will suffer for all eternity.
1 The Verse Everyone Reads but Few Observe
For centuries, interpreters have inserted an entire battle narrative into Revelation 20 that simply does not exist.
The text never says Satan’s plan succeeds, never says mortals join him, and never describes combat.
It records only intent, motion, and immediate annihilation.
Those are Tim's presuppositions laid bare as I said. Sure the text never says "mortals join him" but it does say he went to gather the nations in order to deceive them and then they surrounded the camp of the saints. The nations are people as we shall see.
2 What the Text Actually Says
“Satan shall be loosed… and shall go out to deceive the nations… Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.”Three verbs summarize the scene:
shall go out to deceive — intent; not fulfillment
to gather them together to battle — intent; not fulfillment
and they went up — movement across the earth, not demonstrating success in gathering but the intent to gather
Nothing more. No victory, no engagement, no struggle — only an attempted deception followed by judgment from above. It fails!
Now, if you are paying attention to the verses Tim cites you must be shaking your head. Intent but no fulfillment? Verses 9 and 10 say otherwise.
9 And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
The nations were gathered and they surrounded the camp of the saints. Then "the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire." The means the devil succeeded in deceiving a mass of people to make battle. It does not matter if his plans were ultimately foiled, they went beyond mere intent and were fulfilled before the devil was destroyed. Are we even reading the same text? How did Tim miss verses 9 and 10 which clearly contradict him?
Now, let's talk about symbols. Tim says there is an inserted assumption that the "they" in verse 9 are humans. According to Tim this cannot be so because that would defile the new heaven and earth.
3 The Inserted Assumption
Traditional commentaries assume that “they” refers to human nations living through or after the thousand-year reign who somehow rebel again. But, is this people group ever recorded in scripture? No.
Yet:
Revelation gives no hint of mortal survival outside glorification at the First Resurrection. If so, the earth would be defiled once more.
The chapter never says men fought; only that fire devoured.
A post-millennial human rebellion would instantly defile the new heaven and earth—something Scripture never allows.
The insertion stems from imagination, not exegesis. A desire, (we do not understand), to insert war into the text which is not there. That same thinking manifests in another misunderstanding of the War in Heaven, which has never occurred, and will not, until the future Revelation 12 event.
This is where Tim's millennial assumptions fall apart. Tim is operating within a premillennial dispensationalist framework. Even if he does not believe everything that entails, that is his phronema. There are many problems that arise with premillennialism. However, if the millennial reign of Christ is the entirety of the Church age, no problems arise.
The historic Christian understanding of the millennium and the binding of Satan is that is the age in which we are currently we are living. By His work on the cross Jesus Christ bound Satan and now he cannot prevent the Gospel from spreading throughout all the world. Here is the doctrine as stated by Eusebius.
For from the time when the word of Gospel teaching began to pervade all nations, from that time the oracles began to fail, and the deaths of daemons are recorded.
https://www.ccel.org/ccel/pearse/morefathers/files/eusebius_de_07_book5.htm
Here is a modern restatement of that doctrine from the Gospel Coalition.
What is the binding of Satan talked about in Revelation 20? If we use Scripture to interpret Scripture, it would seem to refer to the inbreaking of Jesus’ reign and rule in his first coming. In Mark 3:27 Jesus says:
“But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house.” (Mark 3:27 ESV)
Jesus said this to explain his own ministry. He was able to exorcise demons, heal and save precisely because he had bound the strongman. Jesus said something similar in reference to the preaching of the 72 in Luke 10:
“I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you.” (Luke 10:18–19 ESV)
According to Jesus, his first coming began an immediate process of binding, curtailing and limiting with respect to Satan’s power and authority such that the preaching of the Gospel would be able to proceed and bear fruit among the nations.
In Revelation 20 the Apostle John has a vision which seems to be saying essentially the same thing:
“Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while.” (Revelation 20:1–3 ESV)
According to Jesus, the binding of Satan began with Jesus’ first coming. According to Revelation 20 it will last 1000 years and have the effect of limiting Satan’s ability to deceive the nations.
https://ca.thegospelcoalition.org/columns/ad-fontes/what-is-the-binding-of-satan/
In response to the objections that evil still exists and the New Testament says Satan walks around like a lion seeking whom he may devour, it must be remembered that Revelation is a 100% symbolical book. The binding of Satan means he cannot hinder the Gospel, not that he has no power or has ceased to exist. Tim takes umbrage with another symbol to be found in Revelation, "the sand of the sea,"
4 Who Then Are “They”?
“The number of whom is as the sand of the sea.”
This echoes the demonic horde language of Revelation 9:16 (“two hundred thousand thousand”) and 16:13-14 (“spirits like frogs… to gather them to battle”).
The likely referent is not humanity rebelling again, but the hybrid and demonic host that followed Satan through the Tribulation — the same spirits cast out yet unrepentant, granted one final delusion before extinction. Let us not forget the context here is that of a delusion on satan's part.
Genesis 32:12 And thou saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.
Joshua 11: 4 And they went out, they and all their hosts with them, much people, even as the sand that is upon the sea shore in multitude, with horses and chariots very many.
Judges 7:12 And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the children of the east lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude; and their camels were without number, as the sand by the sea side for multitude
1 Samuel 13:5 And the Philistines gathered themselves together to fight with Israel, thirty thousand chariots, and six thousand horsemen, and people as the sand which is on the sea shore in multitude: and they came up, and pitched in Michmash, eastward from Bethaven.
Isaiah 10:22 For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return: the consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness.Jeremiah 15:8 Their widows are increased to me above the sand of the seas: I have brought upon them against the mother of the young men a spoiler at noonday: I have caused him to fall upon it suddenly, and terrors upon the city.Jeremiah 33:22 As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured: so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites that minister unto me.Hosea 1:10 Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God.Romans 9:27 Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved:Revelation 13:1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
G.K. Beale, in his commentary on Revelation, writes:
But the multitudes here are not demonic forces but antagonistic peoples throughout the earth, primarily because they are identifIed as "nations," which elsewhere in the Apocalypse always refers to humans (e.g., 19:15).
The Book of Revelation - A Commentary on the Greek Text, pg. 1024
Tim has nothing to say about how the nations are actually demonic hybrids. Maybe that's in the video?
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| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-ce1v_1rOA |
No. Sadly, the video is more AI slop with no relevant slides proving Tim's assertions.
In the previous article I wrote that Tim neglects the final verses of chapter 20 which say the wicked will be cast into the lake of fire and stops with verse 9 which says they shall be devoured. That contradiction is now cleared up because, according to Tim it is not the wicked who will be destroyed in that verse but demons.
5 Fire Before Sword
Notice the divine order: fire came down before any sword is lifted.
This is not a war; it’s a verdict.
Heaven’s fire falls directly from Yahuah — not from angelic or human armies.
No battle is recorded because the rebellion never matures. It is merely intended and Yahuah knows the thoughts of all.
Evil is consumed, not contested. It is definitively not joined by mankind in this text. It is just not there.
Tim insists there cannot be a war with wicked men because that would defile the new creation.
6 The Logic of Purity
If a true war occurred:
Saints would witness the defilement of the new creation.
Another cleansing would be required.
Thus, the only consistent reading is instant judgment without human corruption. He knows their intent.
Again, this is Tim reading his premillenial assumptions back into the text. He has to preserve his doctrines of no bodily resurrection and annihilationism. Neither of those doctrines are true. Furthermore, Tim is looking through the crooked lens of premillennialism which is a doctrine condemned by the Church thousands of years ago and revived in the 19th century by men like John Nelson Darby and C.I. Scofield.
This analysis is enough to cover this teaching without going over the video. Rather than offer any clarity on the 20th chapter of Revelation Tim is only muddying the waters. He is not only ignoring what the text says but he is inserting his own strange interpretations such as Satan deceiving not the nations but demonic hybrids. It's simply more obfuscating nonsense from Timothy Jay Schwab who is the God Culture.
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