---
title: Revelation 20:7
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/revelation-20-7/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/revelation-20-7.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Revelation 20:7
testament: NT
section: Prophecy
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Revelation 20:7

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> When the thousand years are complete, Satan will be released from his prison,

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "Now as soon as the 1,000 years have ended, Satan will be released from his prison"

## JW Usage

Revelation 20:7 is foundational to the Watchtower's doctrine of the post-millennial test. After Satan is released from the abyss at the end of the 1,000 years, he gathers Gog and Magog to attack "the camp of the holy ones" (v8) — and even the resurrected and surviving humans face this final trial. Those who fail are annihilated forever in the lake of fire. This creates the third tier of the JW triple-jeopardy salvation system: survive Armageddon, live faithfully through the millennium, and survive Satan's release.

## Protestant Usage

The post-millennial release is real, but Reformed readings hold the millennium itself is the church age, not a future literal thousand-year period. The release of Satan corresponds to the final intensification of evil before Christ's bodily return. The decisive Reformed objection is that the JW post-millennial test creates triple-jeopardy salvation: every Witness, living or resurrected, can fall and be annihilated at any of three stages. This contradicts Hebrews 9:27 ("it is appointed for men to die once, and after this the judgment") and 1 John 5:13 ("I write you these things that you may know that you have life everlasting"). Assurance is not presumption; it is the gift Jesus died to give. The Watchtower's eschatology withholds it.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Armageddon, the Millennium, and the Assurance Watchtower Cannot Give](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/jw-armageddon-millennium-doctrine.md) — Revelation 19-20 / 2 Peter 3:9 / 1 John 5:13 [Eschatology]
- [The Last Enemy Is Death — and It's Last for a Reason](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/last-enemy-death-subjection-chain.md) — 1 Corinthians 15:24-28 / Revelation 20:7-15 — the chain Paul will not let break [Eschatology]