END OF TIME PROPHECIES 117

The abyss

"And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened, by reason of the smoke of the pit".   Rev.9v2.
        

The phrase "the bottomless pit" is usually rendered "the abyss" and refers to a narrow hole of immeasurable depth in an undefined place, but one which literally exists. The word is "abussos" and occurs in the following scriptures; Luke 8v31: Romans 10v7: Revelation 9v1-2: Revelation 9v11: Revelation 11v7: Revelation 17v8: Revelation 20v1: Revelation 20v3.   The reference in Luke 8v31 reveals that the demons who possessed the unfortunate man were terrified in case Jesus would send them to the abyss.   Therefore the demons know about this place, and what they know of it they don't want to be there.   It would appear that it is some kind of prison house  for certain types of fallen angels.   We must get an understanding of this before we move on.   In the scriptures there appears to be fallen angels who are free.(Ephesians 6v12).   This empire of Satan is ordered and consists of various ranks of angels in the mysterious world of darkness.   Paul describes it like this  "principalities, powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world, spiritual wickedness in high places."   Paul refers to this empire in Ephesians 2v2  where he talks of the "prince of the power of the air" controlling the course of this world and "the spirit operating in the children of disobedience".   In contrast to that there are angels who have been imprisoned and are not free and the details of this are seen in Jude verse 6  "the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day."   The last phrase  "the judgment of the great day" is what we have here in Revelation chapter 9.   Again in 2nd Peter 2v4, Peter explains  "for if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment."   The word in this verse for "hell" is "Tartarus" and is the only place in the bible where this word appears.   This Tartarus therefore it would appear is the abyss spoken of in Revelation 9 and other portions.

Why did God allow some fallen angels to be free and others to be imprisoned?   No doubt it has to do with the seriousness of their offences against the Lord.   We cannot be sure of the details but a hint of this is given in Genesis 6v2 where is says  "that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair: and they took them wives of all which they chose."   This apparently refers to fallen angels taking human form with a desire to copulate with women on earth.   Again we cannot be sure but it would appear that the result of this unnatural union produced a world of half human and half angel inhabitants such that it was stated that "only Noah was perfect in his generation."   The literal understanding of this was that his family was the only one free from this corruption and God had no option but to flood the world.   This was an attempt by Satan to corrupt "the seed of the woman" thus frustrating the purposes of God.   Angels who will stoop to this kind of behavior cannot be allowed to remain free and so they were imprisoned.  

To understand this abyss and what we are about to witness in the vision of John, we have to take on board the language of Jude 6 and 2nd Peter 2v4 where it is stated that these angels were placed in everlasting chains, that is chains from which only God could release them.     In both scriptures there is reference to "intense darkness."   Since the days of the global flood these angels have been kept in a black hole by divine decree.   Jude 13 calls it  "the blackness of darkness."   For centuries they have been there, the most immoral and wicked of all the angels, and now they are about to be unleashed upon the earth.   They will be returned to the abyss when God has finished with them, just as Satan will be bound in this prison for one thousand years, just prior to being banished to their eternal home of torment.   When this pit is opened for a time the true meaning of the expression  "all hell on earth" will take place.  The true character of Satan is now revealed; no longer the charmer, but bursting forth in raw evil as he unlocks the prison of the most evil beings in the universe.