Thanks to Nathan [1]‘s excellent comments on my post on amillennial problems [2], I’m going to try to flesh out a few of my points. Not so much by showing where I think non-millennial positions are wrong, but more to positively state my position better. One place to begin is with Satan.
Revelation 20:3 [3] says that John saw an angel who took Satan “and bound him for a thousand years.” This angel had a key and a great chain and he threw Satan “into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended.” This is an important part of the millennial discussion. Is Satan currently bound?
To answer that question, we have to understand what the text says and what it doesn’t say. First, the chain, the key and the pit cannot be physical things. An angel, even a fallen angel, is a spiritual being and a million foot pit cannot hold one. That said, the key, chain and pit are not without meaning. In a very real sense, Satan will be (or is) bound. So don’t get too hung up over the imagery used here, it is not meant to be the focus but instead to explain spiritual matters in a fashion we can understand.
Also pay careful attention to how Satan is bound. The qualification to his binding is “so that he might not deceive the nations any longer.” For Satan to be bound doesn’t require the complete removal of his activity in the world but it does require that his deception of the nations ceases. He could still trouble the saints but he cannot lie to the nations.
Finally, this curtailing of his activity is not eternal. It lasts a measured amount of time. I don’t believe that 1,000 years is to be taken literally here. The way 1,000 is used in Revelation, really the way numbers in general are used in Revelation is much more figurative. 1,000 seems to indicate a sense of fullness. For example, in the next chapter, the bride of the Lamb, the heavenly Jerusalem, is described as being a 12,000 stadia cube. The picture there is 12 x 1,000. The 12 Apostles times the fullness of their ministry or the people they represent. 1Some translations make the sad mistake of translating 12,000 stadia as “fifteen hundred miles;” as if the important thing is the physical size! It clouds the imagery of the vision. So “a thousand years” here isn’t meant to be 365,250 days but rather a grand, large, majestic period of time.
So is Satan currently bound? In Matthew 12:29 [4] Jesus asks a rhetorical question, “Or how can someone enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man?” It would seem that Jesus is teaching that the strong man, Satan, is bound because Jesus is plundering his house! So in a sense, yes, Satan is currently bound. But is it the same sense we read in Revelation 20 [5]? The context of Matthew 12:29 [4] is not Satan deceiving the nations but rather the casting out of unclean spirits. Jesus is plundering Satan’s house by “setting the captives free” not by terminating Satan’s deceptive activity. If the binding of Matthew 12 [6] was the same as the binding of Revelation 20 [5], then Paul would have no occasion to say that “[Satan,] the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ” in 2 Corinthians 4:4 [7].
Blinding to the eyes of the unbelievers is the same kind of activity as deceiving the nations. Both keep people from seeing the light of the gospel. So in a “Revelation 20” sense, no Satan is not currently bound. He is still blinding, still deceiving. But he is bound so that his house may be plundered of the captives he once held. Demons cannot withstand being cast out of a person in Jesus’ name. His house is being plundered.
And I wonder if this is not what Jesus meant when he told Peter that the gates of hell would not prevail against the Church. Gates are not offensive weapons, they are barricades. They are designed to prevent passage. The Church is not trying to march into hell so the meaning cannot be that the gates of hell are there to keep us out as we try to press in. Instead, it could be that the Church is rescuing souls from hell by preaching the gospel. The gates of hell cannot prevail against the Church by restraining those souls she has unbound. Might this not be another picture of the strong man bound and his home being pilfered?
But there is another day coming when Satan’s binding will be more complete. Not simply a man bound in his own home, but an angel locked with a chain and thrown into a deep pit. His deceptive activity, his most powerful and familiar weapon will be denied him. When Satan “lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44 [8]) When that ability is removed from him, then his binding will be much more complete and effective.
That binding, according to Revelation 20 [5], takes place during Jesus grand, large, and majestic reign on the earth. Next post will deal with the saints and the Millennium.
| ↩1 | Some translations make the sad mistake of translating 12,000 stadia as “fifteen hundred miles;” as if the important thing is the physical size! It clouds the imagery of the vision. |
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