Rev 20 Part I

THE Revelation of Jesus Christ
Chapter 20
part I

Undoubtedly this chapter is the most controversial in the entire Bible. But is it really that complicated? Is there really an elaborate scheme waiting to be unwrapped? Or is the text a lot simpler than modern prophecy writers would have you to think? As Scripture as our key to unlock scripture, lets take a look at The Revelation of Jesus Christ as given to the Apostle whom He loved.

1 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. 2 And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years;
Rev 20:1-2 (NASB)

The word THEN1 will suggest a succession of the previous events from chapter 19. The white horse rider defeating Antichrist and the False Prophet is then understood chronological just prior to chapter 20. The contention of a preterist understanding of Revelation would be the preceding event was not the second coming, rather it was the conclusion to the judgment coming of Jesus against an apostate people who were cut off as the Gospel went out to the entire world. The ‘THEN’ is a natural progression from the preceding passages. The angel is not specifically said to be Christ but the authority he has is seen from his possession of the keys. Rev 1:18, Christ “has the keys of death and Hades”. Chapter 3:7, He “has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens”. The forth example from Revelation of keys we find a stark contrast to the references of Christ (or His entourage 20:1). In chapter 9:1, Satan is said to have fallen to Earth like a star from heaven and “a key to the bottomless pit was given to him”. The identity of the ‘star’ historically has been thought to be Satan, Mohammad, or even, according to the Church of Rome, the star was Martin Luther! Satan is the point I think, and that the authority of the keys were not naturally possessed; rather they were given to him. They were not his own but had to be given to him.
Along with the keys of power and authority, the Angel of Revelation 20 carried a chain in which exercise His authority as He laid hold of the Devil and bound him for a thousand years.
We are told Satan is bound and if we were to stop here, we might indeed have an idea of a physical wrapping up of Satan with the chains that are brought by the Angel. Instead, the text is conveying a lesson through the use of common, understandable terminology. Satan would be bound, not bound to the point of a non consequential existence, but rather bound from specific activities as we will see in verse 3.
The question then becomes is this an event that remains years, or even centuries into our future?
Some would say yes, it is clear by looking around at our wicked world that Satan is clearly not bound. Even the Scripture declares, “Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (I Pet 5:8).

These things are certainly true; we live in a world awaiting judgment for its wickedness. Satan indeed employs his fallen hordes to wage war on God’s people. Let’s look for a moment, into the Scriptures to determine the timing of this event, as we do, some things should as well become clear as to its nature.

21 "When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are undisturbed. 22 "But when someone stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, he takes away from him all his armor on which he had relied and distributes his plunder
Luke 11:21-22 (NASB)

The strong man is pictured as Satan and He who is stronger is Christ. Matthew records these words of Jesus;

29 "Or how can anyone enter the strong man's house and carry off his property, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house.
Matt 12:29 (NASB)

The strong man is bound and his house is plundered. The realm of Satan has been attacked by one with authority and power and he has suffered lose to his domain as his possessions are plundered. This is not an event yet to take place, Christ in His incarnation assumed the role as the desolator of Satan’s kingdom in His Earthly ministry.

28 "But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
Matt 12:28 (NASB)

The point Jesus labored was that the Kingdom had arrived and as proof that Satan had been bound, He cast out demons. This is a blatant claim to His Divinity, demons have been cast out, Satan has been bound, and therefore the Kingdom has come and He is the One to sit on its throne.
We can find assurance in our understanding as this is a prominent theme in the ministry of our Lord as something that He was to accomplish by His first coming.

17 The seventy returned with joy, saying, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name." 18 And He said to them, "I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning.
Luke 10:17-18 (NASB)

The very same John who penned the passage under review, recorded this in his Gospel;

31 "Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out.
John 12:31 (NASB)

Jesus hints at the idea when Peter confesses Him by the power of the Holy Spirit.

I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.
Matt 16:18 (NASB)

The building of the church meant all peoples, every where.
As we think of these things, we might wonder that since this is such a major doctrinal change, moving the events of this chapter to our past from the future, the Biblical evidence should indeed come through out the New Testament by multiple writers. And indeed it does.
Paul as well carries this doctrine into his letters to the churches.

15 When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.
Col 2:14-15 (NASB)

The writer of Hebrews weighs in.

14 Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,
Heb 2:14 (NASB)

We can be assured that at the first coming of Christ, the Devil was bound as Christ won the victory over the cross, leaving Satan helplessly impotent to stop the spreading and success of God’s Kingdom. This brings us to ‘how long’.

and bound him for a thousand years;

If Christ bound Satan in the first century, we have some problems as we are 1,936 years past the destruction of Jerusalem, and 1,976 years the other side of Calvary. But lets simply look at the Biblical evidence and see how the number ‘thousand’ is used. First, we need to remember that this is the only book of the Bible that mentions this period of time, in fact, chapter 20 is the only chaptes in this book that this 1000 year period exists. We can hold these thousand years as wooden literal, as do the premillennialists and some postmillennialists. Or, we can see this number as a literal symbol of a very large number, or in this instance, a very long period of time.
“When this number (10) is cubed, it becomes the ultimate symbolic number of quantitative perfection.”(R. Bass Jr.)

Lets look at the Scripture to see how different phrases with the number 10 cubed (a ‘thousand’) apply to the above quote and its subsequent use in Revelation 20.

9 "Know therefore that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments;
Deut 7:9 (NASB)

Surly God will extend His faithfulness to the 1001 generation.

10 "One of your men puts to flight a thousand, for the LORD your God is He who fights for you, just as He promised you.
Josh 23:10 (NASB)

Would it be possible that a thousand and one be put to flight? Absolutely! To take this number and force it to mean ‘no less’ or ‘no more’ would be a hermeneutical travesty, as well it would be in our next passage also.

7 A thousand may fall at your side And ten thousand at your right hand, But it shall not approach you.

Psalms 91:7 (NASB)

And again from Isaiah

23 And it will come about in that day, that every place where there used to be a thousand vines, valued at a thousand shekels of silver, will become briars and thorns.
Isaiah 7:23 (NASB)

Is not the wooden literal meaning of these passages to take the numbers symbolically? If we take into account the nature of apocalyptic literature as related to Biblical poetry and imagery, the answer is as obvious as the day is long.
(see also Ex 20:6; Deut 1:11,32:30; Jos 23:10; Job 9:1; Ps 50:10, 84:10,90:4,105:8; Ecc 7:28; Isa 30:17; 60:22; 2 Pet 3:8)

In the context of the New Testaments usage of the binding of the strong man, we have also gleaned from those passages what in fact happens as a result of Satan’s binding.

3and he threw him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be released for a short time.
Rev 20:3 (NASB)

The ‘abyss’ is literally the ‘the bottomless pit’, ‘the deep’.

We think of a place such as this as being a place where Satan is rendered inapt to carry out his activity in the world. But he is not placed in the lake of fire as were the beast and the false prophet, which comes later. Yet in the abyss, he is specifically kept from the stated activity. The text clearly points out; “not deceive the nations any longer”.

Up until now, very small amounts of the world’s population were recipients of God’s covenant of Grace. God had called out for Himself a specific people through the descendants of Abraham. He brought this ethic people to a very small sliver of land that ultimately all the peoples of the Earth would be blessed. God indeed was going to bless all nations by calling for Himself a people from every tribe and tongue. Jesus spoke of the “sheep of another fold” that He would bring to Himself and make one people from the two folds. The gentiles would here and believe.

When speaking of this passage, David Chilton writes; “Before the coming of Christ, Satan controlled the nations; but now his death-grip has been shattered by the Gospel, as the good news of the Kingdom has spread throughout the world. The Lord Jesus sent the Apostle Paul to the Gentiles nations ‘to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, in order that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in me’.”2 (Act 26:18)

Olive branches being grafted in, as the fruitless branches were being broken off and burned. No longer could Satan keep the peoples of the world from being drawn into the family of God. The Gospel intrinsically has the power to over come the sin blinded minds of the world. Satan has been defeated, and the promise to Abraham was a reality.

Footnotes:

1 Although, there remains some objection to asserting this claim in conjunction to this type of literature. A chronological sequence by using the strict sense of 'then' and related words could be dangerous. In this case however, it seems to relate back to the previous events in chapter 19 but remains considerably less than dogmatic.

2 David Chilton , after suffering a heart attack and subsequent coma, converted to full preterism and thus denied the historic Christian faith. Full preterism is considered a dangerous heresy by changing the nature and timing of the resurrection. This doctrine alone is not the extent of its reach. Other major concerns arise, such as the doctrine of justification, from this heresy. Never the less, Chilton wrote all his major works from an orthodox preterist position and I believe insight can be gained through them.