Thanks to Nathan‘s excellent comments on my post on amillennial problems, 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 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 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? The context of Matthew 12:29 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 was the same as the binding of Revelation 20, 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.
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) When that ability is removed from him, then his binding will be much more complete and effective.
That binding, according to Revelation 20, 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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8 Comments
In John 12:34 Jesus says,
“Now is the judgment of this world; NOW will the ruler of this world be cast out.”
He continues in the next verse to affirm what will take place once Satan is removed: “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”
Here He was talking about what His death would accomplish, and the fact that Satan’s removal and His death would draw all nations to Himself. (Context begins in V20 with the gentiles seeking Him).
Of course, this is the same John who wrote Revelation 20. I prefer to let the crystal-clear texts, like this one, explain the symbolic, like Rev 20, but you seem bent on the opposite.
There’s no explaining away this text. It contradicts you position. The only thing you can do is plead moderation. That is, you must say that we posses the realities of Rev 20, but not in their fullness -and the fullness would would argue for is your interpretation of this one, symbolic text of Rev 20.
You must admit some kind of ‘binding’ of Satan and light given to the nations.
You must admit some kind of resurrection (spiritual) for the saints.
You must admit some kind of current reign for the saints.
You must admit some kind of ‘priests of God’ position for the saints.
You must admit some kind of reign of Christ over the nations.
All of Rev 20 is at least partially fulfilled, but maybe not in the intensity which you envision.
Add all of these things up, including the fact that NONE of the promises of God are ultimately fulfilled in the millennium, and you see why Amillennialists believe that the millennium concept is unnecessary and redundant.
The pinnacle of human history and
God’s defeat over sin and Satan took place at the cross. We’re not waiting for an earthly, temporal, worldly fulfilling that would (in theory) shift the pinnacle of God’s victory to a future period of carnal redundancy.
Ha. Well, I have a comment on that hermeneutic approach in my next post. :)
Indeed and heaven help any of us if we explain away a text! However, let me press you on this one. You’re focused on the second half of the verse and that’s fine. I agree with you that Jesus death has defeated Satan. No problems. But what about the first half? What does Jesus mean by “Now is the judgment of this world”? Does he mean the eschatological judgment of the world is right now?
I did! But not in the full fashion listed in Rev 20 or 2Co 4:4 makes no sense.
Yes to all.
I’ll flesh all that out in the post I’m working on about the Saints and the Millennium. Rather not deal with it here.
I agree with the first part but not the second. Jesus earthly reign is not redundant, it is a fulfillment of the Davidic Covenant.
The earth as God’s creation is not “carnel” .. Scripture is not to be interpreted through the lens of incipient neo-platonism, even if that neo-platonism was inherit4ed from the venerable and respected Augustine…
Peace…
Tim-
I’m going to step out of this discussion. I’ve begun to state my case pretty fairly, but I’m not going to waste my time arguing over ‘half-fulfillment’, ‘full-fashion’, and ‘partially-binding’ kind of stuff.
John 12 speaks for itself, and everything of substance in the first half of Revelation 20 can be clearly shown as a NT reality. I’m not sure what else you want as proof that Revelation 20 is describing a present reality and not some golden age that the symbolism has put in your head; but I’m convinced that no proof is sufficient enough to crack your presuppositions.
“here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.”
Peace
I completely understand Nathan. You have school coming up and this is probably not the best forum to discuss these things. I have benefited from your discussion so far and will reread you comments.
Let me just say that we all have presuppositions. The presuppositions I held as an Amillennialist were weakened not by other presuppositions but by reading the NT and not hearing Amillennial approaches taught there. I admit that I have adopted a new set of presuppositions and so far these fit the Biblical data better. The problem isn’t that there is “no proof sufficient” it is that I am already familiar with the Amillennial presuppositions and have found them to be insufficient.
Thanks again for your time, you have been a blessing, really!
how do you have time for this kind of study anymore? I am lucky to find time to put together some good teaching/preaching much less dissect theological complexities!
Matt,
a) I’m not a church planting pastor (like you).
b) I’m teaching my Sunday school class for the second term so very little prep is needed.
c) I have a nearly 2 hour commute on the train each way to work.
d) I don’t really have time but I think a lot. :)
Love you brother. Praying for your church and you.
[…] Also, I did a follow up post on the binding of Satan here. […]