The following excerpt is taken from What Every Christian Should Know About Satan. Order your copy in print, Kindle, or Audible versions here.

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Before Satan is cast into the lake of fire to be tormented forever, Revelation 20:1-3 details a thousand-year imprisonment:

Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven holding the key to the abyss and a great chain in his hand. He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. He threw him into the abyss, closed it, and put a seal on it so that he would no longer deceive the nations until the thousand years were completed. After that, he must be released for a short time. 

The Greek word abyssos, rendered “abyss,” “pit,” or “bottomless pit” in many English translations, occurs nine times in the New Testament. In most occurrences, it refers to a place of temporary confinement for certain evil spirits. For example, in Jesus’ encounter with “Legion,” the demons who possess this Gerasene man beg Jesus not to banish them to the abyss – no doubt a place evil spirits fear (Luke 8:31). 

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