Wilderness
and Abyss Are Symbolic of a Prison, or a Time of Restraint
of a Power
Introduction
The
thesis of this web page is that the wilderness and abyss
(bottomless pit in some versions of the Bible)
in symbolic Bible prophecy are symbols of the same thing
- a prison or a restraint of a power. This is based
on several ideas presented in Revelation 9:1-12; Revelation
12:6, 14-16; Revelation 17:3, 8, 9; Revelation 20:1-3,
7; Leviticus 16:7-10, 16-22, 26-27.
The
author noted in studying Revelation 17:3, 8, and 9, that
there is evidence that the wilderness and the abyss are
symbols of the same thing. But, wanting better
proof that just a couple of verses in the same chapter,
he continued to search until he found the additional
evidence he needed. This web page will document
the evidence, show that it is very reasonable, and show
that it is consistent with the symbols as used in Revelation. This
should be reasonably convincing to anyone willing to
look at the evidence available.
One
has to be extremely careful of use of a key word or phrase
in the bible, because it is often the case that people
will take a key word or phrase, find an interpretation
of that word or phrase in one verse, decide that they
like that interpretation, and then take it throughout
the Bible and force the new interpretation of the key
word or phrase to fit into every text wherever that key
word or phrase is found. The trouble with this
is that it forces the meaning of the other verses to
be skewed so that they are "bent out of shape". They
no longer carry the meaning of the words that are intended
because of the forced interpretation of one word or phrase
in that verse. Thus, it is best to find out first
if the interpretation fits naturally in other verses
and explains all verses in harmony with other parts of
the Bible without skewing the meaning of any of them.
With
these thoughts in mind, please study the evidence below.
The
author noted in Revelation 17:3, 8, 9, that the wilderness
is equivalent to the abyss. Here is the evidence
for this:
- the
beast and the woman appear together in the wilderness
- the
beast and woman are never said to go into the wilderness
- they are already there when first seen by John
- the
beast is said to be "is not"
- it
is explained that the beast will ascend out of the
abyss - note future tense - so this has not yet happened
as of the time from which the angel is speaking (the
time frame from which he was speaking was 1963-1978)
- the
beast is never said to have gone into the abyss. He
is therefore already there and is going to leave
someday by ascending out of it. The "is
not" state of the beast must mean that it is
in the abyss.
- Conclusion:
the beast is already in both the wilderness AND the
abyss at the same time, which means they are symbols
of the same thing since no distinction is drawn between
them.
The
author noted in reading Revelation 20:1-3, and 7, that
these verses define the abyss to be a prison. Note
that this is different than the Greek definition given
for the abyss. But, as is commonly done in Revelation,
this is again a way in which the Bible defines a word
or symbol to have an interpretation of its own, independent
of the definition for that word. You can see another
example where the Bible does this in Revelation 1:20
in regards to the candlesticks. We all know what
a candlestick is, but Revelation 1:20 tells us that it
is a symbol of the seven churches. Now, if you
go back to the Greek definition of candlestick, you probably
will come up with a definition similar to what candlestick
is defined to be in English. But such an exercise
would be meaningless because the dictionary
meaning is NOT what is genuinely important in Revelation,
but rather the symbolic meaning is the item of importance.
So,
likewise, those who go back to the Greek definitions
of wilderness and abyss are missing the point of these
symbols entirely. Revelation IS a book of symbols,
and if the reader misses this point, he will entirely
miss the deepest understanding of Revelation. So,
when you, the reader, run across the terms wilderness
or abyss in Revelation, look for the symbolic interpretation
rather than the dictionary definition from a Greek-English
dictionary. You will be glad you did! But
just be aware that there are many theologians who will
try to lead you to that Greek-English dictionary, but
their attempts are misguided for they don't understand
this. There are theologians who do understand this,
however, so don't think all are this way.
Now,
since the wilderness and abyss are clearly symbolic of
the same thing in Revelation 17, and Revelation 20 defines
the abyss to symbolize a prison, then the logical conclusion
is that both the wilderness and abyss are symbolic of
a prison. But is this consistent with other prophetic
scriptures? The answer to this question is yes,
it is consistent. But in order to demonstrate that,
please first consider Revelation 12.
When
the author was studying Revelation 12, there were many
things he noted, but two of these things are relevant
to our discussion here. These are:
- The
woman was said to flee to the wilderness for 1260
days because she is pursued by the dragon. This
clearly indicates that she is placed into some sort
of restraint by the dragon because she certainly
does not wish to go there but must to save her life. Thus
she is trapped there as long as the dragon is a threat
to her. This really is a functional definition
of a prison, so it has puzzled the author why anyone
would need to go to the Greek-English dictionary
to understand the wilderness.
- The
dragon does NOT follow her into the wilderness.
The
second item above very much puzzled the author because
it made no sense based on the Greek definition of the
word wilderness (which is desert, solitary, wilderness). Why
did he not follow her? It made no sense because
there was no reason for the dragon not to follow her
into a desert or solitary wilderness. So, why would
he stop outside of the wilderness?
Some
have argued with the author that this is not true. They
claim that the dragon does follow the woman into the
wilderness. But the author checked with sources
which give direct translations of the Greek to English,
and these sources are consistent with the idea that the
woman is away from the dragon by being in the wilderness
and the dragon remains outside of the wilderness. If
you would like to check this out for yourself, here
is a link to a web site that has a copy of a direct translation
of Greek to English in parsed form:
One
day, the author was studying Leviticus 16, which explains
the day of atonement services. This service, like
most of the Old Testament sanctuary services, is a prophecy
acted out by the priests as they carried out day to day
services. However, in the case of the day of atonement
services, this occurred only once a year. The author
noted the following order in which things are done on
the day of atonement:
- The
priest sacrifices a cow for himself
- The
priest takes some of the blood of the cow into the
sanctuary inner compartment (where they went only
once a year normally), and carried out the day of
atonement services there for himself and his family.
The
next set of steps are where the relevant prophecy itself
is acted out. Pay careful attention to the order
in which these activities were carried out and their
symbolic meaning.
- 2
kid goats are selected from the herds for a sin offering
- 1
is selected for sacrifice (this one is then called
the sin offering) and the other set aside for the
time being until needed later. Now the prophetic
part of the activity started:
- the
one selected for sacrifice was sacrificed and this
represented the death of Christ (which occurred in
31 AD) for the sins of all the people
- the
priest went into the sanctuary to make an atonement
for all the people in the inner compartment. This
represented the judgment of all Christians that occurs
after 1798 but before the end of the world's history
(See Daniel 7:22, 26, and Revelation 11:14-19). So
it moves forward in time.
- After
the atonement is made, then the priest comes out
of the sanctuary and using both hands held over the
head of the remaining live goat, confesses the sins
of the people. This goat is then called the
scapegoat and represents Satan
- This
scapegoat is to be taken out to the wilderness by
the hand of a fit man and let go. The goat
is to be released only where there were no people
so it would possibly die out there from lack of food
and water. Whatever happened, it was to be
alone. The sins were symbolically physically
taken away from the people.
- The
remains of the goat sacrificed (the sin offering)
is to be burned in a fire at the end of the day. Though
the goat did not die in this fire, the fire itself
represent the second death or hell. This must
be so because the fire is the last thing to be done
to represent the destruction of sin on the day of
atonement, and we know that hell is the last step
God will take to finally eradicate sin from this
universe once and for all. Therefore, since
this goat represented Jesus, this act symbolizes
that Jesus died the second death for us. Note
that the scapegoat is NOT burned in the same fire,
probably because burning him there at the same time
would suggest that the death of Satan could save
someone. Thus, to avoid that idea, the scapegoat
was not brought back to die in the fire. The
focus is upon the sacrifice of Jesus and what it
was doing for us.
After
studying this over, the author realized that the wilderness
the scapegoat was sent to must represent the abyss the
dragon is sent to during the millennium as mentioned
by Revelation 20. This clearly indicates that the
wilderness and the abyss are the same thing, which is
in harmony with what the author realized was true in
Revelation 17.
The
author then decided to take this to Revelation 12 and
see if it readily fit without having to twist the meaning
of the verses there. If it did, then it was better
proof that the wilderness and abyss both represent the
same thing - a prison or restraint upon a power. Here
is what he found:
When
the woman went into the wilderness, she went into a type
of prison under this interpretation. But this is
true because during the 1260 years, the true believers
in God were forced to hide themselves as much as possible. They
were not free to be open about their beliefs as they
understood them. Hence, they were in a type of
prison where they were not free to teach and practice
their beliefs openly. Many even literally hid in
wilderness areas to avoid extermination. But, sometimes
the forces under Satan's control found these individuals
and extinguished their lives, sometimes quite horrifically. Those
who did these things will pay for it in the day of execution
of judgment (hell). Hence, symbolically, her movements
and freedom were restricted in Revelation 12. So,
it fits - naturally.
But,
that dragon! Why does he not follow her into the
wilderness? It is important to understand that
the only time the dragon goes into the abyss (prison)
is during the millennium, which is yet future to our
time (2004). Thus, it is impossible for the dragon
to go into restraint or prison until the
millennium begins. Because the dragon is NOT shown
going into the wilderness, this picture is telling us
that he did not go into restraint during the 1260 days/years. So,
we can conclude that the dragon remains free to harass
anyone through the 1260 days/years and right up until
the millennium begins, after which he will be restrained
and unable to bother anyone until the millennium is over
(see Revelation 20). Therefore,
Revelation 12, by showing that the dragon does NOT go
into the wilderness, is telling us through the use of
symbols that the devil does NOT go to jail during this
time. He has a "stay out of jail" permit
until Jesus comes.
The
woman, however, goes into the wilderness, so she goes
to prison, or into a time of restraint. She is
trapped by the dragon who is free to harass her as much
as he is allowed to by God. The woman being in
prison helps protect and preserve a knowledge of the
truth and allows God to give the woman a measure of protection
during this difficult time. It is a form of protective
custody, if you will. This makes perfect sense,
doesn't it?
In
Revelation 12:14-16, it tells us that the woman flees
into the wilderness and the dragon, in an attempt to
harm her, spews a flood of water out of his mouth in
an attempt to sweep the woman away with the flood. But,
the earth opens it's mouth and swallows the water. So,
if the wilderness is a prison, what does this mean and
does it naturally fit?
In
this picture drawn by words, we see the dragon outside
of the wilderness facing towards the wilderness in which
the woman is hiding. This occurs after the 1260
days/years have begun. The dragon opens his mouth
and a mass of water comes out which creates a huge flood
that moves towards the hiding place of the woman in the
wilderness. But a huge hole opens in the ground
and the water simply disappears into it. Consequently,
the water never reaches the woman to carry her away.
But
remember that these are symbols. The dragon is
the devil, the woman is the true church, the waters are
peoples, nations, multitudes, and tongues, while the
wilderness is a prison. Since the other elements
are symbolic, it is logical that the earth itself is
symbolic as well in this usage. The earth is a
dry place, the opposite of waters in prophecy, so it
is logical that this represents a geographic location
without much in the way of organized peoples, nations,
multitudes, and tongues. It does not mean totally
devoid of people, only that they are not well organized
politically and probably not a lot of people either.
So,
what would this mean, the dragon spewing water out of
his mouth at the woman in the wilderness, but the earth
swallows the water? The dragon, being the devil,
spews water out of his mouth, which are peoples and nations,
after the woman who is in the wilderness, or prison,
but the earth swallows the water, which probably symbolizes
that a geographic location literally absorbs the waters
or peoples. So, logically this means the devil
sends peoples and nations after the woman in her prison,
but fails to destroy her because these people are diverted
to a geographic location that does not have organized
nations and is relatively sparsely populated and literally
absorbs the large numbers of people. This causes
the devil's plan to fail.
Since
this probably occurs near the end of the 1260 days, what
event would that correspond to in history?
What
country arose towards the end of the 1260 years (or about
1798) in an area that was relatively sparsely populated
beforehand and was not organized into nations? Think:
the United States. This dragon spewing water out
towards the wilderness in an attempt to sweep her away,
is a prophecy that near the end of the 1260 days, a new
land would open up that would provide a refuge from political
persecution for the woman and would also absorb many
who would otherwise have literally swamped the woman
with humanity. To some extent, this symbolism must
be recognized to include much of the remaining new world
(western hemisphere) as well which opened up for settlement
at that time.
Conversely,
consider what would have happened had the waters reached
the woman. The devil's plan would have succeeded. What
would it mean for the waters to have reached the woman? Consider
that during the time that the pilgrims were coming to
America (and even later on), there was a population boom
going on in Europe, according to historians. Land
was getting difficult to obtain. This would have
made it harder to make a living. It might eventually
have reached such proportions that starvation would have
set in - a literal famine. This would have killed
off many of the people of God "hiding" among
those around them, and in this way the woman would have
possibly been destroyed or greatly injured.
So,
what this boils down to is that the wilderness and abyss
are both symbolic of a prison, and this interpretation
fits perfectly in Leviticus 16, Revelation 12, 17 and
20. Therefore, the Greek-English dictionary has
nothing to tell us about the meaning of the wilderness
and abyss in these chapters, for the Bible clearly interprets
the meaning of the words by itself.
Now,
in Revelation 9:1-11, the abyss is opened and smoke comes
out of the abyss, and grasshoppers come out from the
smoke upon the earth. This is symbolic of the Muslim
invasions of the Byzantine Empire. But what this
tells us is that a power was let out of the abyss. Is
it logical that a power is under restraint and then freed
from that restraint? Of course. So, if you
use the definition given in Revelation 20 that the abyss
is a prison, then it makes perfect sense in Revelation
9 as well for that power was let out of it's restraint
for a time.
Some
question the identity of the scapegoat in Leviticus 16. But
again, the sanctuary services were
symbols used to teach about the future, so one should
look for a symbolic meaning of goats in the Bible because
they were part of the service activities on the day of
atonement.
The
author's wife grew up on a farm and she has commented
upon the observation she made that a goat, when kept
with sheep, will boss the sheep around. The goats
tend to be rather headstrong, willful, and to not follow
the sheep, but rather to lead the flock or even drive
it where it wants the sheep to go. The sheep tend
to be followers. The Bible clearly makes use of
this difference between sheep and goats in it's symbolism.
The
Bible teaches that as part of the sanctuary services,
the people were to bring animals, usually a sheep, to
sacrifice for their sins. The idea behind this
was to help the people understand something of what Jesus
was going to do for all the world by giving up his own
life for our sins.
In
the Old Testament, there were some examples given in
which the people were compared to a flock of animals,
and the leaders were compared to shepherds and goats. The
following two verses detail a situation in which the
leaders are compared to goats:
- (Jer
50:8) Remove out of the midst of Babylon, and
go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be
as the he goats before the flocks.
- (Jer
51:40) I will bring them down like lambs to
the slaughter, like rams with he goats.
In
Jeremiah 50:8, people are challenged to take the lead
in getting out of Babylon. Those who make this
effort to lead the way are compared to "he goats" in
front of the flocks. The flocks were the people
who followed.
In
Jeremiah 51:40, again the goats are the ones who lead
the sheep (rams - male sheep) to the slaughter. So,
the goats here are the leaders and the sheep are the
followers. The goats lead the sheep to be slaughtered.
- In
Ezekiel 34, most of that chapter is given over to
a lament by God that the shepherds of his sheep have
taken care of themselves and neglected the people
under their care. God compares the people primarily
to sheep, but includes a comparison to cattle and
once to goats. The goat reference probably
is another way of referring to the leaders who had
done evil rather than good to his flock.
- In
Daniel 8, the goat is used as a symbol of Greece
(Macedonia) under Alexander the Great. This
probably is a reference to the aggressiveness of
the goat.
- (Zec
10:3) Mine anger was kindled against the shepherds,
and I punished the goats: for the LORD of hosts hath
visited his flock the house of Judah, and hath made
them as his goodly horse in the battle.
- In
Zec 10:3, it is clear that God compares the shepherds
to goats, and also compares the flocks of Judah to
good horses used in battle.
In
the New Testament, Jesus used similar symbolism. Here
is what he had to say:
- (Mat
25:32) And before him shall be gathered all
nations: and he shall separate them one from another,
as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:
- (Mat
25:33) And he shall set the sheep on his right
hand, but the goats on the left.
Clearly
he intended that the sheep symbolized the good people
while the goats were those who had done evil and were
not acceptable. This may make sense because Christians
do have to follow God, something that can be compared
to a sheep following the shepherd, whereas a goat tends
to be headstrong and go its own way. God, of course,
does not want us to go our own way for that will lead
to sin. When Satan decided to go his own way in
heaven, it led to sin. We all can see the results
of that here on earth.
Now,
back to the question of who the scapegoat is in Leviticus
16. From the study of symbolism of goats and sheep
just completed, it should be obvious that the 2 goats
that are selected should be seen as symbols of two individuals
who are headstrong, two who are leaders, one of which
is Jesus and the other, being headstrong also, would
likely represent somebody who will not follow Jesus,
and may even oppose him. The fact that both goats
are chosen together might suggest that symbolically they
are competing for the same position - note the position
is what is competed for, not the death as such. Both
goats are symbols of leaders. Satan has challenged
God for control of this people in this world (see Job
1-2), so it logically would suggest that this competing
goat must represent the one who challenges Christ for
his position as owner of this world.
So,
how do we know who this scapegoat is? We may know
because of the time element involved in the acted out
prophecy of Leviticus 16 and information present in Revelation
20.
Leviticus
16 presents the following critical list of events on
the day of atonement:
- the
priest selects two goats and sacrifices one of the
two goats
- the
priest makes an atonement for the sins of all the
people in which he "washes" the mercy seat
with the blood of the sacrificed goat
- the
priest then goes out of the sanctuary and confesses
the sins of all the people on the head of the scapegoat
- the
scapegoat is taken out to the wilderness to be left
there alone
The
following are the corresponding events in history:
- the
death of Jesus for our sins (31 AD)
- the
judgment of the righteous after 1798 and before the
second coming
- Jesus,
after the judgment is done, makes Satan responsible
for the sins he caused the people of God to commit
- When
Jesus comes, Satan is banished to the abyss, or a
prison for the next 1,000 years
- those
not taken to heaven with the saints when Jesus comes,
are destroyed and remain in the grave for the next
1,000 years
Below
is the evidence for this.
The
first event of the day of atonement involving the two
goats was the sacrifice of one of the two goats. The
death of the animals in the sanctuary service was to
represent the death of Jesus for our sins. This
is plainly taught in the Bible. For evidence of
this, see the prophecy of the death of Jesus in Isaiah
53.
The
next event was the priest making atonement for our sins. This
involved the priest "washing" the top of the
mercy seat with the blood of the goat, which symbolized
the washing of the sins of people from their lives and
the record of their lives in heaven by the blood of Jesus,
which means his death covers our sins if we confess our
sins and ask God to clean us of all unrighteousness.
Consider
that the presence of God was visible ABOVE the mercy
seat, while the law of God was held INSIDE of the ark
beneath the mercy seat. The blood was spread or "washed" onto
the mercy seat between the presence of God and the law
below. This symbolized that the law of God condemns
the sinner and God would carry out the sentence of death
against the sinner, but the sinner is able to obtain
mercy from God through the application of blood to the
mercy seat. This says the blood serves to cover
the sins with the righteousness of Jesus and allows the
sinner to live.
The
bible tells us that just before the end of this world's
history, there will be a judgment of those who have chosen
to follow God. This is mentioned several times
in Daniel 7, and also in Revelation 11:18. In this
judgment, those who have chosen to serve God will be
found worthy of being taken to heaven if they have had
their sins covered by the death of Jesus, or as the Bible
indicates through another symbol, they have washed their
robes in the blood of Jesus. Since we know that
the talking horn spoken of in Daniel 7 lost it's dominion
in 1798, we can know that this judgment must occur sometime
after 1798 and before the end of the world.
The
next event is making Satan responsible for the sins he
causes the righteous people to commit. This is
symbolized by the priest confessing the sins over the
head of the scapegoat. This is not to make it possible
for Satan to die for someone else's sins, thereby allowing
them to escape the punishment for sin, but rather to
make Satan responsible for the sins he causes people
to commit. Note again that the only sins he is
made responsible for are those who have accepted the
application of the blood of Jesus to their lives. Everyone
else will die in hell for their own sins.
The
final event with the two goats on the day of atonement
is sending the scapegoat into the wilderness. After
the investigative judgment, the next main event is the
coming of Jesus, at which time Satan is sent into the
abyss. The wilderness the goat is sent to cannot
represent the coming of Jesus, so it must be Satan who
is symbolized by the scapegoat when Jesus comes again. The
wicked will be destroyed and will not remain alive during
the millennium, so none of the human wicked can be he
who the scapegoat represents. Satan is allowed
to live and is forced to remain in the abyss or prison
for the duration of the millennium. Just as the
scapegoat was the sole survivor (of the two original
goats) and is forced to live alone in the wilderness,
Satan will be alone with only his fellow fallen angels
for company during the millennium. The people of
God will be in heaven during the millennium, while Satan
will be forced to remain on this ruined earth.
Since
the scapegoat remains alive and takes the sins away from
the camp, who, after the second coming, remains alive
on earth? Satan is the only possible answer. This
world becomes his prison. With the wicked dead
and the saints in heaven, Satan is the only reasonable
interpretation for the symbol of the scapegoat. It
cannot represent any other person.
Another
reason this can be seen is that in the original day of
atonement service, the people who participated as required
were allowed to live as part of the nation. Those
who refused were to be cut off and were to have no more
part with the nation. This means they were relegated
to the status of those who chose sin as a way of life. In
the future, those who have chosen to have their sins
covered by the death of Jesus will be allowed to live
with the other people of God in heaven after Jesus comes,
whereas those who do not, will be destroyed at the second
coming of Jesus. The people present at the day
of atonement services could not be who the scapegoat
represented, for the goat took the sins of the people
away from the camp, whereas none of the people present
could do that.
So,
in conclusion, it is reasonable to conclude that Jesus
represents one of the goats while the other, the scapegoat,
represents Satan.
Hopefully
this helps the reader better understand this issue.