John's vision of the end of time, the last of the Last Days, is coming to its climax. So far, the beast (Antichrist) and the false prophet have been consigned to the lake of fire, which is Hell (Revelation 19:20). The world rulers and their armies, and all those who have been deceived into accepting the mark of the beast have been put to death (Revelation 19:21) and reside in Hades - the place of the unbelieving dead - until the final judgement when they too will enter their eternity in Hell. But what about Satan, who controlled the Antichrist and energised the false prophet?

John saw an angel with God's full authority seizing Satan, chaining him and binding him into the Abyss. He is held there for a long time (the thousand years may be an actual time period or the cube of 10 which is the number of completeness in Revelation). After that he will be released to make one last unsuccessful attempt to overthrow Jesus – when he will be thrown into hell for ever with all those he has deceived (Revelation 20:10). The Abyss is the bottomless pit of Revelation 9:1-2; 11:1, 7; 17:8. This inescapable deep cavern is the residence of evil spirits in the world, including the demon who will be embodied by the Antichrist (Revelation 11:7). However, the Abyss is fully under God's authority (Luke 8:31). It becomes a holding cell for evil spirits until God's final justice is unleashed upon them (2 Peter 2:4; Jude 1:6) – but it is not Hell, which is the eternal place of unending torment. In Revelation (9:1) God's angel gave the key of the Abyss to Satan to unleash destructive plagues on the unbelieving world (Revelation 9:5). But in these verses the key is in the angel's hand and the devil is imprisoned in the pit.

The devil is identified by four of the names by which he appears in the Bible. The dragon appears in Revelation 12:3-13:11 as powerful and angrily ready to consume everyone who honours Christ. The ancient snake first appears in Genesis 3:1-13; the deceiver of the woman and the indirect cause of the curse on sin. The devil means a slanderer. Satan means adversary. Elsewhere he is called: Abaddon (Hebrew) or Apollyon (Greek), meaning destruction (Revelation 9:11); Accuser (Revelation 12:10); Angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14); Beelzebub (Matthew 12:24), meaning lord of the flies; Enemy (Matthew 13:39); Tempter (Matthew 4:3) … and many other names. His character of multifaceted evil is motivated by pure hatred for God. He uses different displays to deceive, entice, seduce, bewitch, confuse, terrify and manipulate people's hearts away from the God who loves them. One day, Satan will be unable to do any of that mischief, because he is ultimately under God's authority. So don't listen to snakes, "Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." (James 4:3), and "do not give the devil a foothold" (Ephesians 4:27).