Faith Baptist Church
4258 Botetourt Road
Fincastle, Virginia 24090
(540) 473-2325
Revelation chapter twenty covers the binding of Satan for 1,000 years; the doctrine of the resurrection of the just and the unjust; a confirmation of the 1,000 millennial reign of Jesus Christ; a final showdown of the last of the unsaved along with Satan’s last gasp at freedom, and finally the doom of all the unsaved down through time.
At the time Rev.20 is taking place the second coming of Christ is here; the Antichrist and the false prophet have been cast into the lake of fire, the foes at the battle of Armageddon have been slain; the unsaved of the earth have been judged and sent to Hades; the saved of the Tribulation period still living will be seeing the beginnings of Christ new kingdom.
I want you to note how many times the little conjunction and is used. It is the Greek conjunction kai and it often indicates action that follows logical and or chronological sequence.
Revelation 20 shows the progression of chronological sequence following the second coming of Jesus Christ in chapter 19.
20:1
John saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the abyss, the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
This angel has the authority to bind Satan with a great chain. Satan is bound just as those fallen angels spoken of in II Pet.2:4 and Jude 6. Those fallen angels were bound in the pit with chains. The angels of these two passages had attempted to corrupt the entire human race prior to the universal flood wherein Noah and his family were the only believers rescued, Gen.6-7.
Those evil angels inhabited the bodies of men and populated the earth with the most foul and corrupt of beings, beings called Nephilim. This is the Hebrew word for “giants”. The word nephilim means “fallen ones”. These were the demon children of the daughters of men. In pagan cultures these were called demigods, partly human, partly superhuman. This is not mythology but the truth of the intermixture of the human race with the fallen angelic creation. The goal of Satan was to send these fallen angels to corrupt the human race and prevent the fulfillment of Gen.3:15. This prophecy tells of one Son of the woman to crush the head of the Serpent. Satan is warned that a sinless man child would crush him.
God chained these dangerous demons in the pit, and in Rev.20:1-3 we see Satan being cast and chained in this pit as well. This prince of darkness will be put in a hole where there is nothing but darkness. All the darkness he spreads will be absent from the earth for a thousand years.
He will have 1,000 years to ponder over his fall from God’s favor and his ultimate doom.
v.2 And he laid hold [aorist, active,indicative] verb meaning to seize. He seized the dragon, that old serpent, who is the Devil and Satan and bound [aorist, active, indicative] verb. He bound him a thousand years. Perhaps the archangel, Michael is the angel who binds Satan as he is the same angel who defeated him in Rev.12:7-10.
Now we come to the length of time Satan is bound. Scripture says Satan is bound a thousand years, [chilia = 1,000 + ete = years]. From Mt.9:20; Lk.12:19; 13:11; Jn.2:20; Acts 7:6 we see the use of the word etos for years, and each time it is used it refers to a specific length of time.
When a numerical length of time is given it confirms the account as accurate as to duration of time. In Rev.20:2-7 six references to a thousand year span of time is given to John.
As a premillenialist I believe this is a literal thousand years, a time in which Christ will fulfill the covenants God made with Abraham and the Israelite people.
However, for your information I will briefly go over the other major positions on the thousand years as spoken of here.
The postmillennial view- According to this view the thousand years simply represents the triumph of the gospel in the period leading up to the second coming of Jesus Christ; that the return of Christ will follow the Millennium. Basically it is an optimistic view that Christ will reign spiritually on earth through the work of the Church and the preaching of the gospel.
This view will never come to pass. It ignores the progressive corruption of mankind and the growing occult world along with the rise of anti christian religious movements. The world is not and will not repent and turn to Christ in such a grand scale as this belief espouses.
The a-millennial view - The view denies there is any literal Millennium or reign of Christ on the earth. This view sees Christ only reigning in the hearts of believers either in heaven or on earth.
The premillennial view - This view sees Rev.20 as referring to a literal one thousand year reign of Christ on the earth following his second coming. This is the view I take along with most conservative Bible teachers. This view has been exposited from many passages of Scripture in our study thus far in the book of Revelation. I also have a separate fourteen lesson study on Christ’s millennial reign in the tape library under the Categorical Studies CS5.
From the book of Revelation our first two messages looks into the interpretation of Scripture.
v.3
The angel cast Satan into the bottomless pit and shut him up and set a seal upon him. The words bottomless pit is the Greek word, abusson, or abyss as we say it.
Both of these verbs, shut, and set, are [aorist, active, indicative] verbs. This is a definitive moment in history.
Unrest and demonic activity is finally shut up. The angelic conflict which we have to deal with in the Church age is over for 1,000 years.
Eph.6:10-12 which tells of our arch enemy Satan; will be an unknown thing in the lives of the millennial population.
If we ever knew just how much havoc Satan and his band of fallen angels caused mankind we would be amazed. It started in the Garden of Eden and has not stopped since. It has spawned unbelief in Jesus Christ through philosophy, religion and science. It has wrecked homes and tripped up saints for thousands of years. This havoc has stirred the sin in man to rape and pillage homes and nations; to enslave human beings for personal gain; to send men into frantic quests to appease God with useless works for salvation. Yes, Satan is due to be shut up and for this mankind will give a sigh of relief. No more war for a thousand years. No more demon activity and occultism and religion for a thousand years. No more drugs and so on for a thousand years.
Once the thousand years is fulfilled, telesthe, [aorist, passive, subjunctive of teleo], then Satan will be loosed a short time. We will look more at this when we get to verse 7-9.
So there will be a thousand years of rest and peace on earth during our Lord’s literal earthly reign. What the Church will be doing is silent for the most part. We will be with our Savior, but as is the oriental custom the groom does not tell the whole world his business. This is a topic all of its own. We will have the rest of the story when we arrive there in the future.