What is the bottomless pit?

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First, we need to know that Revelation is a prophesy about the future.

The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servantsβ€”things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John, (Revelation 1:1, NKJV)

After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, β€œCome up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.” (Revelation 4:1, NKJV)

Once that framework is set, we can start thinking from that perspective. The visions saw by John were not related to the past or John's present time. So, the war in Heaven is about the future war between Satan and God and not related to the crucifixion of Christ, and so on.

The Abyss or Bottomless-Pit is mentioned three times in Revelation 9, 11 and 20. Here is a summary of it.

  • Locusts came out from it (Rev 9)
  • The Beast ascends out of it (Rev 11:7)
  • Satan was bound in it for 1000 years (Rev 20:3)

According to Rev 20 (NKJV), the Bottomless-Pit is a Prison.

1 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. 2 He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; 3 and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while.

7 Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea.

The location of this Bottomless-Pit is unknown but it must be somewhere in this vast universe or perhaps out of it, in a spiritual world or whatever you call it. It possibly cannot be on Earth but I can't say it is not. One thing we know for sure is that the Bottomless-Pit is a prison and this is a place where many demons are afraid to go.

The demons kept begging Jesus not to send them into the bottomless pit. (Luke 8:31,NLT)

Hope this helps.


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