Now I will turn to evidence of sin and death in a world prior to the Adam’s world under his dominion. Revelation 20 speaks of the final judgment of all rebellious creatures at the great white throne:
"And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne . " (Rev. 20:12a). There no doubt to me that dead human beings are indicated here. But what about the next verse?
"And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, each of them, according to their works" (Rev. 20:13).
All human beings who die go to Hades. All human beings from Adam throughout all human history die to be held by death and Hades. Why then does the Apostle John say that
" . the sea gave up the dead which were in it, . ?" There should be no reason for John to differenciate between the dead humans in Hades and the dead humans who have drowned in the sea. Men who die on the land have their souls go to Hades. Men who die at sea ALSO have their souls go to Hades. But John says that in addition to those in death and Hades, the sea also gave up the dead which were in it.
I say that "the dead" held in the sea probably refers to the demons. Now we must look at the biblical evidence supporting this claim. But my explanations will be concise and not exhaustive. The forum requires brevity.
First some may object that the demons are bad angels and that nowhere are we told that bad angels die. My response is that the demons are not the same as bad angels.
In Acts 23 the Pharisees recognized that there were spirits and there were angels, two class of spiritual beings -
"and some of the scribes of the Pharisees’s party rose up and contended, saying, We find nothing evil in this man. And what if a spirit has spoken to him, or an angel?" (Acts 23:9). The Saducees countered them incorrectly not believing in either angels or spirits -
"For the Saducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel nor spirit; but the Pharisees confess both" (23:8).
These verses are submitted not to prove that the Pharisees were that clear about the nature of demons but only to demonstrate that they recognized other spiritual beings besides angels.
Secondly, there is evidence that the demons are non angelic spirits who are supposed to be confined to the sea:
Jesus teaches
"When the unclean spirit goes out from the man, it roams through waterless places; seeking rest, and does not find it" (Matt.12:43). This verse proves that in this present age the demons prefer these three states of existence in this order:
To inhabit a human being’s body.
To roam about in search of a human body.
To dwell in the sea as a watered place.
They are supposed to be in a watery place, i.e. the sea. They leave that realm and demon possess a sinner’s human body. When they are expelled from there they wander about in "waterless places" seeking rest. The Lord continues with demonic behavior:
"Then it says, I will return to my house from which I came out. And it comes and finds it unoccupied, swept, and decorated. Then it goes and takes along with itself seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter in and settle down there. And the last state of that man becomes worse thay the first.Thus shall it be also with this eevil generation." (Matt.12:44,45)
The wandering demon finds no new subject. Instead of returning to the watery place it returns to the previous man. This time to secure a greater hold over the man the demon brings the reinforcement of seven other demons more evil than itself. This assures the demonic spirits that it will be more difficult to be cast out of the man whose body they are treating as a house.
Why are the demons so desparate to hold on to the human body? It is because they have lost their own physical bodies. This probably happened in the pre-Adamic age. These evil beings were not humans. And we don’t know what they were. But it is apparent that they are "the dead" given up by the big watery place, the sea, to be judged with humans at the great white throne.
Now how else can we know that these demon spirits are supposed to be in the sea? It is evident from Matthew 8 that they rushed down into the sea when Jesus cast them out of a man, allowing them to possess the bodies of hogs:
"And when He came to the other side, into the region of the Gadarenes, two possessed by demons met Him, as they were coming out of the tombs, so exceedingly fierce that no one was able to pass by on that road.
And behold, they (the demons) cried out, saying, What do we have to do with You, Son of God? Have you come here before the time to torment us? Now there was, a good way off from them, a herd of many hogs feeding. And the demons entreateed Him, saying, If You cast is out, send us into the herd of hogs. And He said to them, Go! Abd they came out and went into the hogs. And behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep slope into the sea, and they died in the waters" (Matt. 8:28-32)
Now we have to add to our list of places that the demons prefer to live in order of best to worse:
The prefer to have their own physical bodies. But they have lost them. Hence they are the dead evil spirits. If they cannot have their original bodies they prefer a human body. And to secure one they will gather more demons, even a legion, to hold on strongly that they may not be cast out. If a servant of God or the Son of God casts them out of a human body they would prefer to enter into an animals body. They entreated the Lord Jesus to send them into the herd of hogs. The hogs not being able to tolerate the demon possession for some reason are forced to kill themselves in the water. The demons return to the sea, the watery place from which they were wandering. Last of all is the worst of all. They await in the sea, the watery place, for the judgment in which they will be tormented. The eternal perdition is the worst state for them.
The demons are supposed to be in the sea awaiting the terrible doom of their eternal torment. They know that
"the time" will come. They roam around in a suffering state of disembodiment seeking sinful humans that they may demon possess their bodies. But in Revelation 20 the dead who are not in Hades but in the sea are given up at that time to be judged and tormented for their evil works in pre-Adamic times and in post-Adamic times.
There is one more verse that I would refer to to prove that the demons are the disembodied spirits of some creatures assigned to the sea. That is Revelation 16:13:
"And I saw, out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits as frogs;
For they are the spirits of demons doing signs, which go forth to the kings of the whole inhabited earth to gather them to the war of the great day of God the Almighty."
In John’s vision he saw the demons as frogs. This is meaningful. A frog is an amphibian animal which lives in the water but hops up onto the dry land occasionally to move around. This symbolism indicates that the demons are assigned to the sea, to the watery place as their confined area of judgment after God destroyed the pre-Adamic world. But somehow, in rebellion, they come up out of the sea and wander about on the land like the amphibian frog.
After the judgment of the great white throne, the sea as the prison for demons will be replaced by the second death, the lake of fire. Since the holding place for the pre-Adamic dead is no longer needed there will be no more need for the sea in the new heaven and new earth:
"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and the sea is no more" (Rev. 21:1).
In eternity future when all the evil angels, unbelievers, and demons have been judged two things will no longer be needed. That is death and Hades as the receptical for dead humans and the sea as the recepticle for the pre-Adamic dead beings who followed Satan. Revelation 21:1 tells us that the sea is no more by then. And Revelation 20:13 tells us that death and Hades are likewise discarded:
"And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, each of them, according to their works.
And death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire."
These verses have been presented to prove that sin and death existed in the pre-Adamic world before Adam was created and failed God. Then sin and death entered into the world which was put under Adam’s dominion through Satan's seduction and usurpation.
This message has been edited by jaywill, 02-20-2006 05:25 PM
This message has been edited by jaywill, 02-20-2006 05:29 PM
This message has been edited by jaywill, 02-20-2006 11:14 PM
This message has been edited by jaywill, 02-20-2006 11:23 PM
™ Version 4.2
