PREMILLENNIALISM
By Daymond Duck
...
4) Since Satan will be bound, chained and cast into the Bottomless Pit for 1,000 years at the Second Coming (Revelation 20:2-3), the Millennium won't start until the Second Coming takes place.
Neither the article by Daymond Duck nor the previous one posted by Molly, that was written by K. Neill Foster, an evangelist in the Christian and Missionary Alliance, make any mention of the rebellion at the end of the thousand years which John identifies with Gog and Magog, by deceived people who come against the camp of the saints, and the beloved city, which is an obvious reference to the Church.
Are we to imagine that deceived people on earth will assault the saints who possess immortality who reign in the Millennium? They do not say.
When John refers to the thousand years, it is associated with the period for which the
beheaded saints who do not worship the beast reign with Christ. It is also the time when Satan is bound in the bottomless pit. John mentions the bottomless pit in chapter 9:1-2, where smoke like the smoke of a great furnace comes from the bottomless pit, and in vs. 11, the king of the horrid scorpion-locusts is the "angel" of the bottomless pit, who most consider to be Satan.
In Revelation 11:7, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit makes war with the two witnesses and kills them. In Revelation 17:8, "The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition." In Revelation 20:3 Satan is bound by an angel who came down from heaven, and cast into the bottomless pit.
The last reference speaks of Satan being cast
into the bottomless pit; the previous ones are about the beast ascending
out of the pit. The beast who ascends from the pit in Revelation 11:7 and 17:8 is Satan, identified with the serpent in Revelation 20:2. He was cast
into the pit, before he
ascended out of it. Jesus referred to binding the
strong man, when the scribes accused him of casting out demons by Beelzebub or Satan. [Mark 3:22-27] The "strong man" alludes to Satan, and his being bound relates to Revelation 20:1-2, where Satan is bound with a great chain by an angel from heaven.
While Jesus described Satan being bound, and implied that he had "bound the strong man," and said that he saw him fall from heaven like lightning, [Luke 10:18] these are things that were true for him personally. In the rest of the world, Satan continued to function as usual.
Evidently, the binding of Satan and his being cast out of heaven applied to Jesus, and to his disciples, on a personal and individual level. Note that Satan still entered into Judas, when he betrayed Jesus to the Jews. [Luke 22:3] Satan also influenced Ananias, when he lied to the apostle Peter. [Acts 5:3] Was Satan bound, for Ananias, when be believed the gospel? I think so. But Ananias "loosed" Satan from the pit, and allowed him to ascend to heaven, in his mind, to the place of God, and Ananias followed Satan when he lied to Peter.
Paul spoke of delivering certain people unto Satan.
1 Timothy 1:19-20
Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck:
Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.
The point is that for Paul, Satan was bound, but he was loosed for Hymenaeus and Alexander who were "delivered unto Satan." The status of Satan must be something that applies on an individual level. This was true for Jesus, Peter, and Paul. And I believe that it is what John describes in Revelation 20, where he describes the binding of Satan.
When Satan is "loosed a little season" at the end of the thousand years, this also applies on an individual level. For those who remain faithful, he is never loosed. It only applies to those for whom the thousand years come to an end. This "thousand years" is an expression that we would normally take to indicate far more than a normal life span, yet in Genesis, there are many names of people who are said to have lived almost that long. None of the lifetimes exceeded a thousand years. For a Christian, who reigns with Christ, for whom Satan is bound, his life here in the earth is a foretaste and a prelude for the eternal future state. A thousand years is tiny compared to eternity.
In Scripture, a thousand years is also related to a portion of a human lifetime.
Ecclesiastes 6:6
Yea, though he live a thousand years twice told, yet hath he seen no good: do not all go to one place?
For the Psalmist, a thousand years is identified with "yesterday when it is past."
Psalm 90:4
For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.
This is of special interest to Christians, as once we are given immortality, the whole of our present lives will seem like "yesterday when it is past." I suggest this meaning fits the expression "a thousand years" better than the idea promoted by Duck and Foster, that it means a future Millennium that ends in worldwide rebellion.
Why do those writers avoid mention of the Gog and Magog invasion at the end of the thousand years? Their list of arguments supporting premillennialism is partial and therefore deceptive. They select portions of what John wrote, avoiding the rest. They also ignore the fact that John specified only those who are "beheaded" as those who reign with Christ. He did not say "martyrs." He did not mean martyrs. He meant "beheaded" in a spiritual sense; equivalent to a "circumcised heart." Moses said, "Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked." [Deuteronomy 10:16]
Paul said,
Romans 2:28-29
For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.
He identified believers of all nationalities with the true circumcision.
Philippians 3:3
For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
He said it is a circumcision "made without hands."
Colossians 2:11
In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:
The
beheading that John describes is spiritual or metaphorical, like the circumcision that Paul refers to. The thousand years is symbolic, and applies to every believer on a personal and individual level. Revelation 20:1-3 does
not support the idea of a future Millennium that ends in general rebellion of humans all over the earth.
Doug
