Couldn't Sauron resurface in the future?

[Galadriel55]

Originally Posted by TheLostPilgrim

What I don't understand is...When the Ring is destroyed, it marks the final and total defeat of Sauron. Why? Yes, he's without the Ring, which had a great portion of his power--But he was without that power, the source of much of his strength, after being defeated by the Last Alliance, and still without the Ring, he posed a great threat to Middle Earth.

Originally Posted by Pervinca Took

I read that recently, too. I find it hard to understand how that could destroy Sauron, though - would Gandalf sort of channel the Ring's power into himself and thus a huge part of Sauron's power would be sucked away from him and engulfed? I know these are Tolkien's own words; I'm just trying to work out for myself how it would work.

I think it's easier to picture it as an analogy. Imagine a rich man who deposits most of his savings in a bank. Now, with his money locked up somewhere, does he have it in his hands for his use? No. It's not with him. But is he still rich? Certainly. It's still his money. But if someone hacks into his account and steals all the money, or maybe the bank goes bankrupt, or whatever, and suddenly all his savings disappear - he's not a rich man anymore whichever way you look at it. He basically goes permanently bankrupt.

In a pretty similar way Sauron has lots of power, and places most of it in his power-bank - the Ring. When the Ring is lost to him it's like he's not in a bank right now, so he can't access his account to take the money from it - but he still owns it. But when the Ring is destroyed, Sauron is power-bankrupt.