Revelation 20:9: And 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.

The battle of Gog and Magog will occur during the little season after the millennium.¹ This conflict is also called the battle of the great God² because God completely controls the outcome.³ This final conflict is both a physical battle between mortal combatants⁴ and a spiritual battle.⁵ The spiritual battle will be waged by Satan with his unembodied hosts from hell⁶ on the one hand, and Michael with his resurrected hosts from heaven on the other hand.⁷ The physical and spiritual battles of the great God will occur simultaneously, and both will extend over the entire breadth of the earth.⁸

The battle of the great God has a divine purpose⁹ to save as many people in the telestial kingdom as possible¹⁰ from among those still living during the little season.¹¹ This final battle will provide the necessary opposition¹² to test the last mortal people that will live on the earth.¹³ Michael will fight Satan for the mortal souls of those that may yet be saved,¹⁴ similar to the way Michael fought Satan for the body and soul of Moses in Jude 1:9.¹⁵ Michael's protective and saving role is also illustrated from an event in the days of Elisha the prophet,¹⁶ when a Syrian army surrounded the city where Elisha was located. Elisha prayed so that his worried servant could see the large number of angels guarding them, and he said to his servant in 2 Kings 6:17: "Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them."¹⁷

The battle of the great God will be a two-sided conflict¹⁸ with no middle ground.¹⁹ On one side will be the armies of Gog and Magog²⁰ that are the mortal sons of perdition.²¹ They will be in open rebellion²² against Christ and the millennial kingdom of God on earth.²³ They will rebel against Christ with their eyes wide open²⁴ because great light and truth will be present in all the earth during the closing years of the millennium.²⁵ Their rebellion on earth as mortal sons of perdition²⁶ will be similar to the many unembodied sons of perdition who rebelled with Lucifer during the premortal existence.²⁷

In Revelation 20:9, the camp of the saints is an army arrayed against the mortal sons of perdition in the battle of the great God. These so-called saints are liars, sorcerers, adulterers, whoremongers, and murderers worthy of no more than a place of glory in the telestial kingdom.²⁸ John calls them saints, however, because they actually are saints‒relatively speaking‒when compared to the sons of perdition against whom they fight.²⁹ During the battle of the great God these saints (telestial-worthy people) will suffer God's wrath on earth until they finally recognize³⁰ and confess that Jesus is the Christ.³¹ When they repent and submit themselves to God's will,³² they will then qualify for telestial glory.³³ They are not saints in the sense that they will ever qualify for an inheritance in either the celestial or terrestrial kingdoms.³⁴

The battle of the great God will end when, as John foresaw, the massive armies of Gog and Magog have compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city.³⁵ In this worldwide war, the camp of the saints represents the last defensive position³⁶ of the remaining saints located in the millennial city that was once Old Jerusalem.³⁷ Some scholars say the beloved city is the New Jerusalem,³⁸ but that cannot be true. The Lord has never allowed wickedness to overtake New Jerusalem (Zion) once it has been established by God on the earth.³⁹ Furthermore, New Jerusalem will be taken up to heaven when the celestial resurrection is complete at the end of the millennium and before the little season begins.⁴⁰ Thus, Old Jerusalem will once again become the center for the final great conflict of the little season,⁴¹ just as Old Jerusalem will be the center of conflict in the battle of Armageddon before the Second Coming.⁴²

When the armies of Gog and Magog have the camp of the saints under siege at Old Jerusalem during the little season,⁴³ their pitiful condition will be similar to the Nephites that camped at Hill Cumorah just before their final destruction at the hands of an overwhelming number of Lamanites in 385 AD.⁴⁴ Another foreshadow exists in connection with the pre-millennial battle of Armageddon when the gentile nations will surround the Jews gathered to Old Jerusalem. Half the Jews in the city will be destroyed during the final Abomination of Desolation at the end of the Second Woe, but the more righteous remnant was spared when Christ set his foot upon the mount of Olives at his Second Coming.⁴⁵

In the likeness of Armageddon, there will be a beleaguered camp of telestial saints that gather to Old Jerusalem during the little season. This event is also symbolically described in the Allegory of Zenos from Jacob 5 in the Book of Mormon.⁴⁶ Jacob 5:76-77 describes millennial conditions when the Lord of the vineyard has laid up much good fruit for a very long time. After that time of the millennium, "evil fruit shall again come into my vineyard, then will I cause the good and the bad to be gathered; and the good will I preserve unto myself, and the bad will I cast away into its own place. And then cometh the season and the end; and my vineyard will I cause to be burned with fire." In Jacob 5:77, the telestial saints that remain after the millennium are the good fruit that the Lord will gather and preserve unto himself, leaving the mortal sons of perdition as the bad fruit to be cast away and burned.⁴⁷ The parable of the wheat and the tares follows the same timing, where the wheat is gathered first before the tares are burned.⁴⁸ The Lord used the same harvest model at the end of the Second Woe in Revelation 14:15-20, where exaltation-worthy saints were harvested first to stand on mount Zion in Revelation 14:1, and then the mortal sons of perdition were destroyed or harvested as part of Physical Armageddon.⁴⁹ These scriptural patterns‒coupled with the visions in Ezekiel 38‒provide a clear image⁵⁰ of the battle of the great God during the little season.⁵¹

John's vision of Gog and Magog in Revelation 20:7-10 is an abbreviated summary⁵² of the more detailed visions of Ezekiel.⁵³ Ezekiel 38 is especially helpful to understand the battle of the great God and the end of the earth. This chapter describes both⁵⁴ the battle of Armageddon and the battle of the great God⁵⁵ as though one was the mirror image of the other.⁵⁶ This means that John's many images of Armageddon also foreshadow the battle of the great God both physically and spiritually.⁵⁷ These interpretive aids also provide the needed clarity to understand John's brief account of the resurrection of telestial saints and the end of the earth.⁵⁸

In John's brief account, he saw the telestial saints gathered to Old Jerusalem at the end of the earth when fire came down from God out of heaven,⁵⁹ and devoured the mortal armies of Gog and Magog.⁶⁰ However, before the bad fruit of Gog and Magog is destroyed by this fire, the good fruit of telestial saints must first be preserved as described in the allegory of Zenos and elsewhere. This will occur suddenly when the telestial saints then living are resurrected in the twinkling of an eye before the earth passes away by fire.⁶¹ This constitutes the morning of the last (second) resurrection of the unjust for telestial people then living.⁶² All other telestial people that have died in any past age of the earth will also be resurrected at this time.⁶³ The mass resurrection of telestial people in the morning of the second resurrection will occur immediately before the end of the earth, and it will mirror the mass resurrection of exaltation-worthy people in the morning of the first resurrection immediately before the Second Coming.⁶⁴

Ezekiel 38 also states that before fire devours the armies of Gog and Magog, a great earthquake and pestilence will also strike the mortal sons of perdition that remain.⁶⁵ These physical calamities will be similar to, and perhaps worse than, the plagues of the Third Woe that will cleanse the earth to a terrestrial condition at the Second Coming.⁶⁶ The plagues and cleansing fire at the end of the little season⁶⁷ will begin the earth's final renewal to celestial glory,⁶⁸ just as the plagues of the Third Woe will begin the earth's renewal to terrestrial conditions before the millennium.⁶⁹

After the resurrection of telestial saints and final plagues of the little season take place, fire will then come down from God out of heaven to devour the mortal armies of Gog and Magog⁷⁰ in the same way that Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed.⁷¹ A similar consuming fire came down from heaven when Elijah confronted and destroyed the evil priests of Baal on mount Carmel.⁷² In the day of consuming fire during the little season, the armies of Gog and Magog shall know that Christ is the Lord for he will be magnified and sanctified in their sight just as he will be glorified at the time of his Second Coming.⁷³

After the armies of Gog and Magog suffer severe afflictions in the flesh and death by fire,⁷⁴ Satan will speedily drag their disembodied spirits down to hell⁷⁵ where there will be no forgiveness.⁷⁶ Outer darkness will be their ultimate punishment⁷⁷ when they are resurrected in the afternoon of the second resurrection of the unjust.⁷⁸

When the consuming fire from heaven destroys the mortal armies of Gog and Magog,⁷⁹ Michael and his heavenly host will also defeat Satan and his unembodied spirit sons of perdition in the spiritual battle of the great God.⁸⁰ Satan and his remaining hosts from hell will be cast into the lake of fire where they will be tormented forever, as recorded in Revelation 20:10.⁸¹