In this vision we see that Satan has been bound in terms of being able to deceive the nations like he did before Christ came into the world. Since Christ’s first coming, the church is able to take the gospel into all the world and see some from all the nations of the world bow their feet to Jesus Christ.
The Binding of Satan
Revelation 20:1-3
Revelation chapter 20 is one of the most debated and controversial chapters in the Bible. From this chapter have arisen three completely different views of what will happen in the future. In the first seven verses, a period of 1,000 years is mentioned six times! That is all the more remarkable because this period of 1,000 years is never mentioned in the rest of the Bible.
You may have heard the word “millennium”? The word “millennium” simply means 1,000 years.
All of the debate concerns when this millennium will take place.
Premillennialists believe the millennium will take place after Jesus Christ returns. Thus the prefix “Pre.”
Postmillennialists believe the millennium will take place at the end of the church age before Christ returns. Thus the prefix “Post.”
Amillennialists believe that the millennium is the church age, which began at Christ’s first coming, and will end just before Christ’s second coming. Thus the prefix “A” which means No Millennium. That isn’t strictly true, because Amillennialists believe in a millennium, but they don’t believe it will be a literal 1,000 years.
When I was a young Christian, I was taught in the churches I attended the Premillennial system. In fact, I was never even told that other Christians held to other views of the millennium. I assumed this is what all Christians have always believed. However, in 1992, I did a deep dive into the subject of Eschatology, and studied all the passages in the New Testament on this subject. When I finished, I was no longer a Premillennialist. I had now become an Amillennialist.
The reason I came to the conclusion that the Amillennial position was correct, was because all the other passages in the New Testament fit extremely well with that position. The only passage I had difficulty with was Revelation 20. However, I had learned a very important principle of Biblical Interpretation. “Always interpret the obscure in light of the clear.” Well, the rest of the New Testament is clear about the doctrine of last things. It was only in the obscure passage of Revelation 20, that it didn’t seem to harmonize with the rest of the New Testament. That was, until I stopped interpreting Revelation in a literal fashion, and started to read it figuratively. As we have gone through Revelation, I have tried to show over and over that the book of Revelation is a book containing many different visions, and these visions are full of symbols. If we try to understand this book in a literal fashion, we will emerge with some very strange ideas. But if we read it symbolically, we will see in this book what is taught everywhere else in the Bible. In fact, I don’t believe the book of Revelation really introduces anything that is not taught elsewhere in the Bible. It just presents the same truths we have elsewhere in a symbolic visionary form. We call that Apocalyptic language.
So, with that as some background, let’s approach Revelation 20 carefully and reverently.
1. When Was Satan Bound?
Two of the millennial positions believe that Satan was bound by Christ in His life, death, and resurrection – the Amillennial and the Postmillennial position. The only millennial view that believes that Satan will not be bound until the second coming of Christ is the Premillennial position. Why do they believe that?
First, because Revelation 20 comes after Revelation 19, and in Revelation 19 we see the second coming of Christ. Therefore, they say, that Revelation 20 (the binding of Satan) must come after the second coming of Christ. They point to “Then I saw” in verse 1. They conclude that the events of chapter 20 must take place after the events of chapter 19. But it’s not that simple. Remember that John is recording a series of symbolic visions that God is giving him. “Then I saw” simply means that the vision he is recording in chapter 20 came after the vision he saw in chapter 19. But it does not necessarily mean that the events the vision of chapter 20 recorded happened chronologically before the events chapter 19 recorded. Why would I say that? Because we have already seen John recorded the second coming of Christ, and in the next chapter go back to the birth of Christ, and repeat the story all over again. Chapter 11 ends with the kingdom of the world become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. Jesus has taken His great power and begun to reign. Further, all men are judged. This can be nothing other than Christ’s second coming. But in the very next chapter (12) we find Christ being born, then caught up to God and to His throne. So, is Jesus really born after the second coming of Christ? Of course not! This is what is known as recapitulation. In these visions, God is going back to the beginning and starting the story over from the birth of Christ and showing a different perspective.
The second reason Premillenialists believe that Satan is bound after the second coming of Christ is because they reason he can’t be bound now. It is obvious that Satan is doing all kinds of mischief in the world. He is going about seeking whom he may devour. He is the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who is now working in the sons of disobedience. Well, if all that is true, then he can’t have been laid hold of by an angel, thrown into the abyss, and a lid sealed over him so that he can’t get out. Therefore, since that obviously has not happened yet, this must take place in the future. Iron clad reasoning right? Again, not so fast. To provide a response to the Premillennialist, we need to go to our second question.
2. Why Was Satan Bound?
The text in verse 3 is very clear and specific: “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.”
Remember, that what we are reading is a symbolic vision. The vision of the devil being grabbed, thrown into the bottomless pit, a lid put over the top and sealed sounds like the devil has been completely removed so that they is no longer active at all in the world. But the purpose clause clarifies what the vision is communicating. It is simply saying that Satan was rendered unable to deceive the nations any longer – not that he is no longer doing anything at all.
So that he would not deceive the nations any longer. What is this talking about? Well think with me about this. Before Christ came into the world had Satan deceived the nations? You better believe it! The only nation that had the light of God’s truth was Israel. All the other nations walked in darkness, worshiping false gods. This would include the Philistines, Amorites, Jebusites, Amalekites, etc. It would include the Assyrians, Babylonians, Medo-Persians, Greeks, and Romans. Paul said in Acts 14:16 “In the generations gone by He permitted all the nations to go their own ways…” These other nations did not know the true and living God. They did not understand that God was going to send a Deliverer who would save His people from their sins. They did not know that if they believed the promise of God like Abraham, it would be credited to them for salvation as well as him. They not understand that sin brings death, and thus sin must be atoned for by One without sin. They didn’t have the types and shadows and prophecies of the Old Testament to help them understand these vital truths. They were in darkness.
I believe that this vision is communicating the truth that Satan has been bound through the life, death and resurrection of Christ, because then Christ inaugurated the New Covenant, it was no longer only to the nation of Israel, but to every tribe, and tongue and people and nation of the world. Satan has been bound in the sense that he can no longer hold all the peoples of the world in deception and darkness as he once did. He can’t stop the missionary advance of the church. God’s gospel will triumph. It will redeem a people from every people group of the world, and Satan can’t stop it from happening.
That’s why John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
That’s why we hear Jesus commanding the apostles in the great commission of Mt. 28:18-20, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
That’s why we find in Revelation 5 the 24 elders fall down before the Lamb singing a new song, “Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.”
God’s purpose is that His church take the gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth. The good news is that the church will be successful. Satan hates it, but He can’t stop it. Now, there will be a brief period of time at the end of world history, when Satan will be released for a short time. Revelation 20:7-10 tells us 7 “When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison, 8 and will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war; the number of them is like the sand of the [a]seashore. 9 And they came up on the [b]broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the [c]saints and the beloved city, and fire came down from heaven and devoured them. 10 And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and [d]brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”
Satan will be permitted to deceive and blind the nations at the very end, and as a result they will engage on an all out effort to destroy the church of Jesus Christ. However, Christ will return and destroy the devil and all the nations who follow him.
3. How Was Satan Bound?
Are we to understand this binding literally or figuratively? Well, let’s think it through. Is the devil a literal dragon? A literal serpent? No, he is an evil and malevolent spirit. He is not a reptile, he doesn’t breath fire, and he doesn’t crawl on the ground.
Is he bound with a literal chain, and is it locked with a literal key? No, a literal chain would have no effect on a spirit.
For that matter, is this pointing to a literal 1,000 years? The rest of the book of Revelation is filled with numbers with symbolic meanings. Why would we suddenly change the way we interpret the book. The 7 spirits before the throne, are not literally 7 different Holy Spirits. The number 7 points to fulness of the Spirit. I believe that the number 144,000 is symbolic, symbolizing either all of God’s people throughout the church age, or all the Jews saved before the destruction of Jerusalem in the first century. The number 1,000 should not be taken as a fixed statistical number. Rather, the thousand years simply represent a long period of time. Seen in this way, Satan will be bound for a long period of time, and the time period between the first and second coming of Christ will be a long period of time.
So then, what does this symbolic vision of Satan being bound teach us?
- It teaches us that God is going to restrict the power of Satan so that He is unable to withstand the advancement of His kingdom through the preaching of Jesus Christ around the world for most of church history.
- At the very end of church history, Satan will be permitted to amass an all out war against the church
- He and all who follow him will be defeated and destroyed by the second coming of Christ.
Now, this is not the first time in Revelation we have seen a vision that teaches this very thing. Think back with me to Revelation 11. There we see 2 witnesses who prophesy for 3 and a half years. They are unstoppable. If anyone tries to harm them, fire flows out of their mouth and devours them. We are told in 11:7 that when they have finished their testimony, the beast makes war with the them, overcomes them and kills them. This is telling the exact same story, just with different symbols. The two witnesses represent the church. The 3 and a half years are the church age, just as the 1,000 years are the church age in Revelation 20. The church is unstoppable in its witness, just as Satan can’t stop the advancement of the church in Revelation 20. At the very end the beast kills these 2 witnesses and their dead bodies lie in the streets for 3 and a half days (instead of 3 and a half years), just as at the end of the 1,000 years Satan is released for a short time.
But again back to our main question – how was Satan bound? The answer to that question is not given to us in Revelation 20. Instead, we find the answer in the rest of the New Testament. Let’s look at some passages that will help us understand.
Matthew 12:22-29. In this passage Jesus tells the Pharisees that He was not casting out demons by the power of Satan but by the Spirit of God. He also said that the reason He was able to cast out the demons is because He had bound the strong man, and now was carrying off his property. Really? Jesus had bound the strong man?
Luke 11:20-22. This is a parallel passage to the Matthew 12 passage, but instead of saying that Jesus had bound the strong man, he says that He had attacked him, overpowered him, and taken away all his armor on which he had relied, and that’s why he could distribute his plunder. He has taken away the devil’s weapons.
Col. 2:15 “When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.” There, Paul uses the same imagery that Jesus did in Luke 11. He disarmed him or took away his armor on which he had relied.
Luke 10:17-19. The disciples returned from their missionary trip full of joy and excitement. They had been able to cast out demons. Jesus responded by saying that He saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning, and that He had given them authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing would injure them. In other words, Jesus saw Satan’s demise in relation to the advancement of His kingdom. Sounds a lot like Satan being bound so that the nations will not be deceived any longer.
John 12:31-32 “Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.” Of course, Jesus is speaking about the cross, and Him being lifted up from the earth. As a result of His death and resurrection (not to speak of His life), Satan will be cast out.
Hebrews 2:14 says that through death Jesus rendered powerless him who had the power of death, that is the devil.
1 John 3:8 “The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.”
All of this happened through Christ’s first coming – His life, death and resurrection, not His second coming!
- Satan fell from heaven.
- Jesus bound him and took away his property.
- Jesus took away all his armor.
- He was cast out.
- He was disarmed.
- He was rendered powerless.
- His works were destroyed.
All of that language sounds a lot like Satan being bound. And all that happened at the first coming of Christ, not the second coming! Jesus dealt Satan a decisive blow so that he could no longer do what He had been doing for centuries – deceiving the nations.
Conclusion
So, what does all this mean for us? The obvious application is that since God has bound Satan so that he can’t deceive the nations any longer, we must passionately pursue the advancement of the kingdom of Christ in all the world. There will come a day when Satan is released to deceive the nations to make an all out attack on the church of Christ, and in all likelihood the church will be driven underground, making it very difficult to spread the gospel. We need to be absolutely committed to supporting missionaries and getting the gospel not just to the people where we live, but where the gospel has never gone before. That’s why I love to support missions agencies that are targeting unreached people groups. 97% of all missionaries are working with people groups that have already been reached. Only 3% are working to reach people groups that are unreached. Jesus said, “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come” (Mt.24:14).
Perhaps God has a call on your life to be a missionary – to take the gospel of Christ to a part of the world that does not have it. If that is the case, obey that call! Start preparing yourself to obey that call. If you don’t believe God has called you to go, there are still things you can do to participate in the advancement of the kingdom around the world. You can Pray and you can Give. If you want all or part of your giving to The Bridge to go to a specific missions group, just write that down on the outside of your envelope before putting it into the giving box.
Well, what about the people where you live? Of course, the United States is not considered an unreached people group, but there is still work to be done right here. We need to evangelize those who already have had access to the gospel. One very simple thing you can begin to do today is to carry gospel tracts with you wherever you go, and give them to anyone you encounter throughout the day – the person taking your order at a restaurant, those in line next to you at a grocery store, and people you work with or go to school with.
Folks, it is not just the preacher or the pastor or the Evangelist’s responsibility to get the gospel to the lost. It is the responsibility of all of Jesus’s disciples. If you are currently not doing anything to get the gospel to the lost, you need to make some changes. What change will you make to your life, so that you can be involved in advancing Jesus’ kingdom around the world? Think about that question right now. Has the Lord given you an idea of a change you should make? If so, I urge you to put that plan into action this week. Let’s pray.
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