"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." Verse 6.
The evil spirits themselves know that this day is coming. When Christ was about to cast certain of them out of one who was possessed, they cried out, "Art Thou come hither to torment us before the time?" Matt. 8:29.
Though the judgment of that last day was originally set for Satan and his angels, unrepentant men will have a part in it, because they have joined Satan in his lawless rebellion. To the wicked it will be said:
"Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." Matt. 25:41.
Satan sees that the day is hastening; and the shorter the time in which to work, the greater his fury in seeking to draw souls to perdition.
The warning comes to us in these last days:
"Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time." Rev. 12:12.
Christ's second coming ends the reign of Satan in this world. The wicked are slain by the consuming glory of Christ's coming (2 Thess. 2:8); and the righteous are taken to heaven, beyond the reach of Satan's arts (1 Thess. 4:16, 17). The archenemy and his angels are thus left upon an earth devoid of human beings. Here he is chained for a thousand years, in this pit of desolation (Rev. 20:2, 5), his only companions the angels who fell with him, his only occupation the contemplation of the ruin he has wrought and the destruction that still awaits him.
By the second resurrection—that of the wicked dead, after the thousand years—Satan is again set free to ply his arts upon his subjects. As the holy city comes down out of heaven from God, with all the saints, Satan gathers his angels and all the forces of the lost of all the ages, to make an assault upon the city. The result was shown to the prophet in vision:
"They went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceiveth them was cast into the lake of fire." Rev. 20:9, 10.