In the book of Jeremiah, the prophet writes,

I looked at the earth, and it was formless and empty; and at the heavens, and their light was gone. I looked at the mountains, and they were quaking; all the hills were swaying. I looked, and there were no people; every bird in the sky had flown away. I looked, and the fruitful land was desert; all its towns lay in ruins before the LORD, before his fierce anger (4:23–26 NIV84).

When will Earth be formless, empty, and without people, birds, or life?

Jeremiah is describing Earth during the 1,000 years, the time between Christ’s second coming—when the righteous dead are raised back to life, the righteous living are transformed to immortality (1 Thessalonians 4:13–18), and all of them leave Earth with Jesus and go to heaven for 1,000 years—and His third coming, which occurs at the end of the 1,000 years. Revelation references these events in chapter 20, where we learn that Satan is bound, by the chains of circumstance, to the empty and formless Earth.

When God takes away His saints and puts all the unrepentant into the grave at Jesus’ second coming, the Earth is returned to a state similar to the one described in Genesis 1:1—a formless void. And Satan, who has claimed equality with Jesus and sought to overthrow Him, and his angels are left here for 1,000 years. Satan, who has been pretending to be Christ (2 Corinthians 11:14; Isaiah 14:12 15; Revelation 13:11), now has 1,000 years to prove his claims, to prove he is equal to Christ, our Creator, to create upon the formless void as Jesus did in Genesis. But, of course, he cannot.

God does this because He cannot win the universal war against the liar by mere claims, proclamations, or declarations—despite Him always speaking/declaring the truth. No, lies are not eliminated by simply declaring the truth; lies are defeated by evidence! And God, who is the source of all truth, all reality, wins by evidence, by unfolding the truth in reality. Satan is left here for 1,000 years to demonstrate his impotence, his inability to create upon the formless Earth, proving that his claims of equality with Jesus have been lies from the beginning.

Revelation 20 also describes that at the end of the 1,000 years, Jesus returns with His saints and the city of New Jerusalem. The wicked dead are also raised to life, which releases Satan from his prison of circumstances, as he again has followers to tempt and lead. He deceives them into believing that they, together with him and his angels, can overthrow those in the city. They then build implements of war and eventually begin to assault the city, which is when Jesus rises above the earth for the great white throne judgment scene (Revelation 20:7–9).

Putting together the various descriptions from across Scripture (Old Testament, Jesus’ prophecies, Revelation, Paul’s descriptions, etc.), what follows is what I believe will most likely happen from where we are today until the great white throne judgment and the ultimate end of sin and sinners.

The Divide in the Last Days

Historically, there have always been three groups of people in the world:

1. those solidified into rebellion against God such that no amount of truth and love will win them to Him.
2. those solidified into loyalty to God such that nothing will shake them from it (Job, Daniel, the three worthies, etc.)
3. those who have not yet solidified into either camp.

What we have been seeing happen in these last days is that these three groups of people are being reduced down to only two groups—the people in the third group are now choosing, by their preferences, attitudes, and the methods that they practice, to join one of the other two groups.

As end-time events unfold on Earth, the third group dissolves into the other camps as each person makes their choice in regard to truth and love versus lies and selfishness—they are deciding whom they will trust. Will they trust our Creator God and practice His methods of truth, love, and freedom? Or will they, because of fear-driven, survival-of-the-fittest drives, place their trust in something or someone other than God—self, supernatural manifestations, guns, government, law enforcement, political party, Satan impersonating Christ, aliens, or artificial intelligence (AI)? All of these false, empty sources of “trust” have in common the methods of Satan: fear-driven selfishness promoted by the principles of lies, self-justification, ends justify the means, imposed law (made-up rules), and law enforcement that ends up coercing consciences.

We see this happening all around us: the polarization of society.

But Satan further deceives by dividing his followers into subgroups that appear to be opposing each other—but, in reality, they are all practicing his methods. For more on the different groups in Satan’s camp, see our blogs King of the North Versus South and Today’s End-Time Events and Prepare! The King of the North Is Coming.

When we understand the principles, methods, and design laws of God and choose to trust Him and live in harmony with His methods, we solidify our hearts and minds into God’s kingdom and there is an automatic unity between people, a unity that is inherent in our faith (Ephesians 4:13). We become one with God and with each other in love, trust, and the design principles of life (John 17:17–23).

But the wicked, those who reject God and His design laws, fragment and fracture into many different sub-groups that superficially appear to be different, but they are all practicing the same methods of fear-based selfishness through imperial rules, imposed laws, law enforcement, coercion, deceit, control, and manipulation.

COVID was the perfect example of this.

All the various governments of the world came together to practice the exact same methods on their citizens. While the various countries had different specific “laws”—masking; closing schools, businesses, and churches, required number of jabs; etc.—they all used the same methods of coercive force, impingement upon conscience, and restriction of liberty, with willful lying. Remember, “if you receive the jab you will be immune”? They knew this was false when they promoted it.

And all of the various fear-driven, selfish groups—whether atheist, communist, humanist, woke, pagan, or the religionist, the believer in a god like the Dark Ages church promoted, or those like the Pharisees, who crucified Christ, preferring the methods of Satan and, thereby, worshiped him—joined together to use imposed law and law enforcement to coerce the consciences of people. They all had the “ends justify the means” mentality; after all, they were only “seeking to save lives.”

But what God wants is our love, trust, loyalty, devotion, agreement, and friendship (John 15:15), and none of those can be achieved through law and law enforcement. The use of external might and power incites fear and causes rebellion, and thereby, it causes sin to spread. Therefore, God teaches that it is not by might or power, but by the Spirit of love and truth, that He wins (Zechariah 4:6).

A War of Principles

As events on Earth continue to unfold, the methods of God (truth, love, freedom) will war against the methods of Satan (fear, selfishness, lies, imposed law, coercive force) and the people of the world will solidify into those two groups. Those loyal to our Creator continue to practice the design-law methods of truth, love, and freedom and trust God with how things turn out—versus all others who have chosen the methods of lies, selfishness, and fear and use the methods of imposed law, law enforcement, and coercion of conscience.

As billions of people respond to fear and selfishness, choosing to reject love, truth, and trust, they harden their hearts against God, and by their choice, the Holy Spirit is closed out of their Spirit temple (the hearts of people) and is, therefore, slowly withdrawn from the Earth.

As the Holy Spirit is withdrawn, Satan and his forces gain ever-increasing control over humanity and the forces of nature. As God’s sustaining presence loosens control and He sets people free to reap what they have chosen, a world without Him, humanity becomes more debased, violent, and decadent; they reject truth, and their minds become delusional in their thinking (2 Thessalonians 2:10, 11), such as believing life evolved on its own without intelligent input, that there is no male or female, that biology is not real; and nature will become more chaotic, with more storms, pestilences, earthquakes, and other natural disasters. This is described in the Bible as the pouring out of God’s wrath—when God stops using power to hold at bay the four winds of strife (Romans 1:18–20; Revelation 7:1–3; Revelation 16:1–20).

Into this decaying scenario, some new existential threat will arise—climate chaos, pestilence, aliens, nano-tech infections, or AI. Whether real or manufactured by malicious actors, this new threat will be used to incite existential fear and justify greater restrictions of freedom—more laws and more law enforcement.

Human governments and those who don’t know God will respond to the increased fear with what are considered natural and rational choices—more self-protective measures that seek to gain control of others, just as they did during COVID. The fear-driven godless will again control the media and promote all kinds of propaganda to manipulate and control their populations through fear-inducing messaging with ever-greater imposed laws and restrictions of liberties.

Into this environment of decadence, decay, existential threat, and fear, a supernatural power will emerge. Whether through spiritualism or through science and the claim of alien encounters, alternate universes, or quantum tunneling, or some combination of these, Satan and his forces will make themselves known.

A False Savior Appears

Satan, of course, will not present as an evildoer, as a fear-inducing death-dealer; no, he will manifest himself as an “angel of light,” claiming to be our creator and savior. He will claim to have created life on this planet sometime in the past and will frame his presentation in a way that will garner the support of both the scientific community and the religious leaders of the world. All but the elect will accept him.

He will describe how our planet is heading for a global disaster, an extinction-level event of some kind, and that only by accepting him as our savior can annihilation be averted. He could even adopt the biblical truth that there is an intergalactic war (Revelation 12:7) that has been waging for eons, but he’ll twist the facts and claim that he is the one who created life and that he has come back at this time to save humanity from his enemy, who is on the way to destroy the planet and lay it to waste, which is what the Bible says Jesus is going to do for the 1000 years.

Satan will have his fallen angels impersonate dead loved ones, who are supposedly in heaven (regardless of whether they accepted Jesus while on Earth or not), and they will give testimony of the wonders of heaven and claim that Satan is Jesus. These impersonations will be without flaw. These fallen angels in human form will have the exact tone of voice, know secret conversations never told to another, and speak with heart-moving compassion—but it will all be a lie. Satan will almost certainly order his fallen angels to impersonate people like Elijah and Moses, but also Muhammad, Gandhi, and Buddha, and have them appear around the planet to speak for him and add their testimony to the others claiming that he is our creator and savior. They will perform various miracles, apparently healing incurable diseases; he will call fire down from heaven, walk on water, teleport from one place to another—the deception will be overwhelming in its nature (Revelation 13:13).

But what he won’t have are the truth and the methods of God!

Thus, when challenged by those faithful few who cling to the truth, he will eventually resort to imposed law and law enforcement, coercion, and infliction of punishment upon the “lawbreakers,” all under the guise of “safety” and “justice.”

I can easily envision Satan telling the world that, according to galactic law, he can intervene and protect us only if we, as a unified planet, choose to accept him as our head, our legal ruler. If we refuse, which he will state we are free to do, then we will be abandoned to our fate. This will exponentially increase fear in the godless with their desperation not to be abandoned, resulting in greater governmental control and ruthlessness against any holdouts who refuse to accept Satan as their leader.

Initially, there will be fines, loss of position, property, and freedom, but eventually, they will resort to imprisonment and then threats of death. After all, they will claim, it is the only way to save not just lives, but the entire planet from destruction—an argument very much like, but even more terrifying than, what people experienced during COVID. Again, all but the very elect will accept him.

Those who are true believers in Satan’s kingdom mark themselves in their forehead (where we think, choose, and form character) as beastly, embracing and wholeheartedly practicing his evil methods, while those who simply go along with practicing these ungodly methods in order to protect themselves mark themselves in their hands (works or actions) as beastly.

The righteous, those who know Jesus and love and trust Him and practice His methods, do “not love their lives so much as to shrink from death” (Revelation 12:11 NIV84) and, therefore, refuse to accept Satan or support his methods. They would rather die than abuse others.

The Real Savior Arrives

When the pressure builds to the point that the wicked move to actually execute God’s faithful, Jesus will then appear in the clouds of glory, with His mighty angels, and the wicked will be slain by the brightness of His coming (2 Thessalonians 2:8). The righteous living are transformed in the twinkling of an eye, while the righteous dead are raised immortal. All the righteous rise in the air to meet Jesus (1 Thessalonians 4:13–18), the wicked dead stay dead, and the planet is turned back into a formless void, like it is described in Genesis 1:2.

For 1,000 years, while the earth lay void, empty, formless, and uninhabited, Satan and his fallen angels are bound to this lifeless void by chains of circumstance, and the righteous are in heaven with Jesus.

At the end of the 1,000 years, Jesus, the New Jerusalem, the angels, and the saved all come down from heaven, and the wicked dead are raised from the grave. There is an indeterminate period of time during which the wicked, led by Satan, build implements of war to attack the city (Revelation 20:7, 8).

This entire time, however, the gates of the New Jerusalem are open (Revelation 21:25), but none of the wicked choose to enter. This reveals the evidence, the truth, the reality, that God does not use His power to keep anyone out of the city or from salvation, that every person who is eternally lost is lost because they used their own power of choice to refuse God—they refuse love, refuse to trust, refuse to repent, refuse to surrender self to Jesus. And even with the evidence of the New Jerusalem, Jesus, the angels, and the saved on Earth, these people are so hardened, rebellious, and settled into the lie that they will not be persuaded.  

Then, as the unrepentant wicked march on the city, Jesus rises above the city and unveils His infinite glory; the fire of His life-giving presence first rains down from Him into the city, demonstrating that the fire is not harmful; it is the fire of infinite truth and love that the righteous live in (Daniel 7:9, 10; Isaiah 33:14,15; Hebrews 12:29; Revelation 21:23). This very same fire then bursts out from the city gates into the world, but for the wicked, those who have solidified their minds in falsehood, who have hardened their hearts in selfishness, hatred, and evil, the fires of truth bring to bear the reality of their condition. Their denials fail when bathed in infinite truth, which burns through all their lies, distortions, and rationalizations used to avoid their own guilt and shame. They can no longer live in fantasy; the reality of who they have chosen to become, of the evil they have committed, of the harm they have caused others, burns through their hearts and minds, and their own sinful condition causes terrible weeping and gnashing of teeth.

This is not an infliction of external punishment; it is reality! It is the truth of what they have chosen, of who they are in fact, of who they are in-deed, and their suffering is the natural result of what sin does when they are no longer shielded by God’s grace, when God stops using His power to shield sinners from their own sin; when God sets people free to reap what they have chosen; when God releases His presence and restores the Earth back to its original design, a planet on which His presence shines fully. It is then that those who have sown the carnal nature will from that nature reap destruction (Galatians 6:8).

Some of the wicked are consumed in an instant, while others are many days struggling against the truth. Each person, by resisting and denying or by accepting and surrendering, chooses for themselves how long they suffer. But eventually, every single sinner, realizing this is reality, says, “I would rather not exist than to live in a universe like this one”—a universe of truth, love, mercy, kindness, grace, and tenderness.

Satan, who has the longest history of rebellion, the longest history of evil, the longest practice in resisting truth, fights the longest against these fires of truth and love. But eventually, he also chooses to surrender his life rather than live in God’s reality. These are the fires into which death and the grave are thrown, for they are the fires that kill or destroy death and the grave. And what kills death? Life—these are the fires of God’s life-giving glory, the fires that occur in the “presence of the holy angels and the Lamb” (Revelation 14:10 NIV84).

All of the wicked, including Satan, voluntarily surrender their lives back to God. They do not want to live in a universe of truth, love, and freedom, and all the saved watch this unfold and have confirmed by the outworking of reality that God never uses power to cause harm; it is sin that harms! God doesn’t use His power to cause death; sin causes death. God eradicates sin and gives eternal life to all who trust in Him. God doesn’t use power to terminate the wicked; He leaves them all free to choose for themselves. It is when God stops using power to shield the wicked from His life-giving glory, from His presence, and all are bathed in it again, that the wicked choose death rather than life, for life in God’s presence is torture to them. And, thus, God cleanses His universe from sin and sinners through the only means that brings eternal security, the only means that does not incite fear and distrust, but restores love and trust through truth, love, and freedom.

Finally and best of all, God uses His mighty power to recreate Earth in newness and perfection. All the elements melt in intense heat as God melts down and then recreates Earth in sinless perfection, the eternal home of the righteous (2 Peter 3:12, 13).

These final events are going to be rapid, but don’t be discouraged! Instead, lift up your eyes and rejoice knowing that our redemption is drawing very near (Luke 21:28).