When Is Satan Released from the Bottomless Pit?

Revelation plainly tells us that Satan is bound in the bottomless pit for a thousand years and that afterward he must be released for a little season. Yet when the visions of Revelation are carefully aligned, an important question emerges:

Revelation announces that Satan must be loosed, but it never separately portrays a figure explicitly called "Satan" or "the dragon" emerging from the opened abyss.

What Revelation does show is far more intriguing:

• The bottomless pit is opened.
• A destructive host comes out.
• That host has an angelic king.
• His name is Abaddon in Hebrew and Apollyon in Greek.
• The beast is also said to ascend out of the bottomless pit.
• The dragon gives the beast his power, seat, and great authority.

Taken separately, each detail may appear inconclusive. Taken together, they form a powerful circumstantial case.

1. Satan Is Bound in the Bottomless Pit

Revelation identifies the prisoner without ambiguity:

“And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years.”

The angel casts Satan into the bottomless pit, shuts him up, and sets a seal upon him. The stated purpose is that he should deceive the nations no more until the thousand years are fulfilled.

The prophecy then adds:

“After that he must be loosed a little season.”

This establishes four facts:

The release is therefore not optional. Satan must come out of the prison into which he was cast.

But where is that release actually shown?

2. The Difference Between a Promised Release and a Depicted Release

Revelation 20:7 says:

“And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison.”

This tells us what occurs at the expiration of the thousand years. However, the text does not give us a separate visionary scene in which John watches the dragon climb out of the abyss.

There is no description such as:

"And I saw the dragon ascend out of the bottomless pit."

This is an illustrative sentence, not Scripture.

Instead, the vision immediately moves to the activity associated with the release: Satan goes forth to deceive the nations.

That distinction matters.

Revelation announces Satan's release, but when the book visually portrays the abyss opening and its powers emerging, the names presented are not "the dragon" or "Satan."

They are Abaddon, Apollyon, and the beast.

3. The First Abyss-Opening Scene: Abaddon and Apollyon

Revelation 9 provides the clearest scene in which the bottomless pit is explicitly opened:

“And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit…”

A destructive host emerges from the smoke. This host is not disorderly or leaderless. It has a king:

“And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.”

The names mean Destruction and Destroyer.

The text therefore gives us the following sequence:

1. Satan is imprisoned in the bottomless pit.
2. Satan must eventually be released.
3. The bottomless pit is opened.
4. A supernatural destructive host comes out.
5. Its king is the angel of the bottomless pit.
6. That king is named Abaddon and Apollyon.
7. No separate figure called Satan or the dragon is shown emerging beside him.

This does not read like the appearance of an insignificant subordinate. Apollyon is presented as the angelic king associated with the very prison in which Satan had been bound.

The Circumstantial Identification

No single line says, "Apollyon is Satan." But identity in a circumstantial case is established through converging evidence: location, timing, character, authority, activity, and absence of any competing figure.

All six converge here.

4. The Second Abyss Connection: The Beast Ascends

Revelation also shows the beast ascending from the bottomless pit:

“The beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit…”

Revelation 17 repeats the same identification:

“The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit…”

This creates another major connection.

Satan is confined in the abyss. Apollyon is the angelic king of the abyss. The beast ascends from the abyss.

Are these three unrelated figures accidentally associated with the same prophetic prison—or are they different expressions of the same released satanic power?

The answer becomes clearer when we examine the relationship between the dragon and the beast.

5. The Dragon and the Beast Are Directly Connected

Revelation does not leave the source of the beast's power unidentified:

“And the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.”

The dragon is explicitly identified as Satan in Revelation 12:9. The beast therefore operates through authority received directly from Satan.

Revelation 13:4 adds:

“And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast…”

Worship directed toward the beast reaches the dragon behind it.

The beast is not merely friendly toward Satan. It is the political, governmental, and persecuting expression of the dragon's authority among the nations.

Dragon and Beast Alignment

The dragon and beast are distinguishable, but they are not independent.

This explains how Revelation can describe Satan's release without requiring the dragon to appear in every vision under the same symbolic form.

In one vision he is the dragon. In another he is the angelic destroyer of the abyss. In another his authority ascends politically through the beast.

6. Two Abyss Scenes, but No Separate Dragon Emerging

Revelation brings access to the bottomless pit into view in two major ways.

The first is the abyss scene surrounding Satan's imprisonment in Revelation 20:1–3. An angel possesses the key, Satan is cast in, and the pit is shut and sealed.

The second is the explicit opening in Revelation 9. The pit is opened, its smoke rises, its host emerges, and its king is identified as Apollyon.

Yet in neither scene do we witness a separate figure explicitly called "the dragon" climbing out.

Revelation 20 tells us that Satan must be released and shall be released. Revelation 9 shows the abyss opened and introduces its angelic king. Revelation 11 and Revelation 17 show the beast ascending from the same abyss.

That creates a compelling prophetic alignment:

The promised release of Satan is not followed by an independent dragon-emergence scene. Instead, the book shows us the king of the opened abyss and the beast ascending from it.

The apparent omission becomes evidence.

7. One Release, Multiple Prophetic Manifestations

Revelation frequently describes the same spiritual reality through different symbols.

Satan is called:

• The dragon
• The old serpent
• The Devil
• Satan
• The deceiver of the whole world
• The accuser of the brethren

There is therefore nothing unusual about the same being appearing under another name that emphasizes a different aspect of his activity.

Apollyon emphasizes destruction. The dragon emphasizes satanic spiritual authority and persecution. The beast emphasizes political, imperial, and governmental power.

These are not necessarily three unrelated releases from the same prison. They may be three prophetic perspectives on one final satanic emergence:

This does not require us to say that the beast is personally identical to Satan in every sense. The beast is presented as receiving authority from the dragon. It is therefore better understood as the earthly manifestation of Satan's released dominion.

Apollyon, however, presents an even more direct identification. He is not merely a kingdom or institution. He is an angelic king whose identity is inseparably connected to the bottomless pit.

8. The Great Tribulation Is the Little Season After the Thousand Years

The identification of Abaddon/Apollyon with Satan does more than answer who emerges from the bottomless pit. It also identifies when Satan is released.

Revelation 20 establishes the governing sequence:

1. Satan is bound in the bottomless pit.
2. He remains restrained for the thousand years.
3. The thousand years expire.
4. Satan is released for a little season.
5. He resumes his work of deceiving the nations.
6. The final conflict follows.

Therefore, wherever Revelation depicts the opening of the bottomless pit and the emergence of its satanic power, that event must occur after the thousand years, not at their beginning.

This is precisely what occurs during the trumpet judgments and the ministry of the two witnesses.

The Fifth Trumpet Opens the Bottomless Pit

“And to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit…”

The opening releases the smoke, the abyssal host, and its angelic king, Abaddon/Apollyon.

This is not a scene preceding the thousand-year restraint. It is the release of the destructive abyssal power that had been confined.

If Abaddon/Apollyon is Satan under his abyssal title, then Revelation 9 places Satan's release at the fifth trumpet, within the period of end-time judgment commonly identified as the Great Tribulation.

The fifth trumpet therefore does not announce the beginning of Satan's thousand-year imprisonment. It announces the opening of the prison.

That fact alone places the thousand years before the fifth trumpet.

The Beast Ascends During the Ministry of the Two Witnesses

Revelation 11 provides a second chronological witness.

The two witnesses prophesy for 1,260 days. When they have finished their testimony, Scripture says:

“The beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.”

The beast does not ascend from the abyss after the final judgment or at the beginning of a future peaceful millennium. It ascends while the two witnesses are completing their testimony amid trumpet judgment, persecution, conflict, and the trampling of the holy city.

That places the beast's abyssal ascent squarely within the Great Tribulation.

The sequence is unmistakable:

The fifth trumpet and the ministry of the two witnesses are not events occurring before Satan's release. They contain the very scenes in which the bottomless pit is opened and its satanic power emerges.

The Thousand Years Must Already Be Over

Revelation 20 does not say Satan is released during the thousand years. It says he is released when the thousand years are expired.

Therefore: if the bottomless pit is opened at the fifth trumpet; if Abaddon/Apollyon is the angelic king released from that pit; if Abaddon/Apollyon is Satan under his destructive abyssal identity; if the beast also ascends from the abyss during the testimony of the two witnesses; and if the beast exercises the authority of the dragon; then the fifth trumpet and the ministry of the two witnesses must occur after the thousand years have ended.

This overturns the common assumption that the thousand years begin after the Great Tribulation.

The prophetic order points in the opposite direction:

The opening of the bottomless pit is therefore a major chronological marker.

It does not introduce the millennium. It proves that the millennium has already expired.

Two Visions, One Release Period

Revelation 9 and Revelation 11 provide two complementary views of the same final satanic release:

Revelation 20 supplies the interpretive key: Satan can only be released after the thousand years.

The trumpet visions and the ministry of the two witnesses show when that release becomes active in the prophetic narrative.

9. The Courtroom Case

Imagine that this were presented as a circumstantial court case.

The accused is placed in a locked prison. The court record declares that he must later be released. When the prison is opened, another name appears—the king of that prison—possessing the same destructive character, exercising the same hostile authority, and leading the same kind of forces attributed to the accused.

No second prisoner emerges.

No separate release is shown.

The political organization empowered by the accused also rises from that same prison.

Would the evidence be dismissed merely because the released ruler was introduced under another name?

Hardly.

The Evidentiary Chain

1. Satan is the identified prisoner of the abyss.
2. Satan must be released after the thousand years.
3. The pit is opened.
4. The angelic king of the pit appears.
5. His name means Destroyer.
6. The dragon is not separately shown emerging.
7. The beast ascends from the same abyss.
8. The dragon gives the beast its authority.
9. The beast continues Satan's work of deception and war against the saints.
10. No alternative release scene accounts for the promised emergence of Satan.

Conclusion: Satan Is Not Missing

The question is not merely whether Satan is associated with the bottomless pit. Revelation explicitly places him there.

The question is what Revelation shows when the abyss is opened and its power returns.

It does not portray a dragon emerging beside an unrelated angel named Apollyon. It does not show Satan leaving in one vision and an independent abyssal king leaving in another. It announces that Satan must be released, then shows: Abaddon/Apollyon as the angelic king of the opened abyss; the beast ascending from that abyss; and the dragon giving the beast his power, throne, and authority.

The most coherent reading is that the dragon is not absent.

This identification also establishes the chronology of Satan's release. The bottomless pit is opened at the fifth trumpet in Revelation 9, and the beast ascends from the same abyss during the ministry of the two witnesses in Revelation 11. These events occur amid the trumpet judgments, persecution, and final conflict of the Great Tribulation.

Because Revelation 20 declares that Satan is released only after the thousand years have expired, the abyssal release depicted during the Great Tribulation proves that the thousand years are already over.

They do not begin after the Great Tribulation. The Great Tribulation belongs to the little season following the thousand years—the period in which Satan is loosed, the nations are deceived, the beast wages war against the saints, and the final rebellion advances toward judgment.

The opening of the bottomless pit at the fifth trumpet is therefore not merely evidence identifying Abaddon/Apollyon as Satan. It is also a decisive chronological marker: