Questions From Readers

Where will the demons be during the Thousand Year Reign of Christ?

The Bible does not explicitly answer this question. However, we can come to a logical conclusion about where the demons will be during Christ’s Millennial Reign.

Providing a foreview of what will take place at the beginning and at the end of this Millennium, the apostle John states: “I saw an angel coming down out of heaven with the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he seized the dragon, the original serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. And he hurled him into the abyss and shut it and sealed it over him, that he might not mislead the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. After these things he must be let loose for a little while.” (Revelation 20:1-3) These verses speak only of the abyssing of Satan and of his eventual release for a little while. Although the demons are not mentioned, it stands to reason that when the angel with the key to the abyss​—the glorified Jesus Christ—​seizes and abysses the Devil, he will do the same with the demons.​—Revelation 9:11.

Upon becoming King in heaven in 1914, Jesus Christ took an action that had a profound effect on Satan as well as the demons. Revelation 12:7-9 states: “War broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels battled with the dragon, and the dragon and its angels [the demons] battled but it did not prevail, neither was a place found for them any longer in heaven. So down the great dragon was hurled, the original serpent, the one called Devil and Satan, who is misleading the entire inhabited earth; he was hurled down to the earth, and his angels were hurled down with him.” Ever since then, Satan and his demons have been confined to the vicinity of the earth. We can logically assume that when Jesus Christ further restricts Satan’s activity in order to free the earth of his wicked influence, He will do the same with the demons.

Consider also the very first prophecy of the Bible. It reads: “I [God] shall put enmity between you [Satan] and the woman [Jehovah’s heavenly organization] and between your [Satan’s] seed and her seed [Jesus Christ]. He will bruise you in the head and you will bruise him in the heel.” (Genesis 3:15) The bruising of the serpent in the head involves keeping Satan abyssed during Christ’s Thousand Year Reign. The prophecy further states that there is enmity between the One doing the bruising and Satan’s seed. This seed, or organization, includes an invisible part composed of the wicked angels, or demons. So it is reasonable to conclude that when Jesus abysses Satan, he also binds and abysses the demons. The fact that the wicked spirits have shown great fear of the abyss indicates that they are aware of this forthcoming restraint.​—Luke 8:31.

Is it possible, though, that Revelation 20: 1-3 does not mention the demons because they are destroyed at Armageddon along with the visible part of Satan’s seed? The Bible renders this possibility unlikely. Concerning Satan’s final destiny, it states: “The Devil who was misleading them was hurled into the lake of fire and sulphur, where both the wild beast and the false prophet already were; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.” (Revelation 20:10) The wild beast and the false prophet are political entities and are a part of Satan’s visible organization. (Revelation 13:1, 2, 11-14; 16:13, 14) They meet their end at Armageddon, when God’s Kingdom crushes and puts an end to all the kingdoms of the world. (Daniel 2:44) The Bible refers to “the everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels.” (Matthew 25:41) Satan and his demons will be thrown into the same “lake of fire and sulphur” as the wild beast and the false prophet in that they too will be destroyed forever. Had the more powerful invisible spirit part of Satan’s seed been destroyed at Armageddon, the demons would surely have been mentioned as already being in that symbolic lake along with the wild beast and the false prophet. Their absence at Revelation 20:10 indicates that the demons are not destroyed at Armageddon.

Since the demons are not explicitly mentioned as being hurled into the abyss, neither are they specifically spoken of as being released from there. However, their destiny is the same as that of the Devil. After being released with the Devil and cooperating with him during the final test of mankind at the end of the thousand years, the demons too will be hurled into the lake of fire and will thus experience everlasting destruction.​—Revelation 20:7-9.

Hence, even though Revelation 20:1-3 speaks only of Satan’s being seized and hurled into the abyss of inactivity, we can logically conclude that his angels too will be bound and abyssed. Neither Satan nor his demon hordes will be allowed to interfere with the fulfillment of God’s purpose to transform the earth into a paradise and restore mankind to perfection during the Thousand Year Reign of Christ.