And the wild beast was caught, and along with it the false prophet that performed in front of it the signs with which he misled those who received the mark of the wild beast and those who render worship to its image. While still alive, they both were hurled into the fiery lake that burns with sulphur.

Action is first taken against the symbolic wild beast (understood to represent Satan’s earth-wide political system) and the false prophet (standing for the Seventh World Power).a (Rev. 13:1, 2) The vision makes it plain that right up till their destruction these two entities will be going concerns, fighting against God. Might they later reemerge, as the symbolic image of the beast did earlier? (Rev. 17:8-11) No chance of that. They are “hurled into the fiery lake that burns with sulphur.” That is where Satan will be destroyed also. The “lake of fire” represents permanent annihilation.​—Rev. 19:19, 20; 20:10, 14; 21:8.