Read the Modern Pastor’s Version

Here is the rewritten chapter text:

I saw an angel coming down from heaven with a key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent known as the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. The angel cast him into the bottomless pit, shut it over him, and set a seal on him.

I saw thrones, and those who sat on them were given judgment. I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God. These people had not worshiped the beast or its image nor received its mark on their foreheads or hands; instead, they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

The rest of the dead did not rise again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy are those who share in this first resurrection: on them the second death has no power, but they will serve as priests of God and Christ, reigning with him for a thousand years.

When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison and go out to deceive the nations at the four corners of the earth. He will lead Gog and Magog to gather them together to battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. These people went up over the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God's people and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven to consume them.

The devil who had deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where both the beast and the false prophet are being tormented day and night forever and ever. I saw a great white throne with one seated on it; his face was so powerful that the earth and heaven fled away, and there was no place for them.

I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before God. The books were opened, and another book was opened—the Book of Life. The sea gave up its dead, and death and Hades delivered up their dead; each person was judged according to their works.

Death and hell were cast into the lake of fire, which is the second death. And anyone who was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.