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Revelation 20:1“And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain. He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the Devil, or Satan, and bound him for 1,000 years. He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the 1,000 years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time.”

The millennium is inaugurated during the church age by God’s curtailment of Satan’s ability to deceive the nations and to annihilate the church and by the resurrection of believers’ souls to heaven to reign there with Christ (20:1–6)

Chapter 20 is closely related literarily to the previous major segment extending from 17:1 to 19:21. That section dealt with the announcement of the fall of Babylon at the end of time (ch. 17), the elaboration of Babylon’s fall, especially the responses drawn forth both from unredeemed and redeemed multitudes (18:1–19:10), and Christ’s judgment of the ungodly world forces at the end of history (19:11–21).

The only hope of obtaining any clarity about chp. 20 is to interpret it primarily first in the light of its immediate context, then in the light of the closest parallels elsewhere in the book, and finally in the light of other parallels in the NT and OT.

There are three predominant views of the millennium, though within each perspective there are wide variations of interpretation.

Some believe that the millennium will occur after the second coming of Christ. This view is traditionally known as premillennialism.

Postmillennialism, by contrast, has held that the millennium occurs toward the end of the church age and that Christ’s climactic coming will occur at the close of the millennium (“postmillennial” means “after the millennium”).

Others believe that the millennium started at Christ’s resurrection and will be concluded directly before His final coming. This view has been called amillennialism. It is better to refer to this third view as “inaugurated millennialism,” since “amillennial” literally means “no millennium.” Postmillennialism and amillennialism, and some premillennial interpreters, have approached Rev. 20:1–6 according to a symbolic interpretation. Traditionally, many premillennial commentators have approached the text with a so-called “literal” approach.

Now there are really only so many ways you can, on the face of it, interpret this first part of chp 20.

There are some who argue that the 1,000 years is not symbolic of time at all; it is merely some kind of symbol for the victory of Christ in defeating the Devil. You find that interpretation fits in with one of the amillennial interpretations.

It’s very neat; the problem is that in the genre of apocalyptic literature, although it is true that numbers are regularly symbolic and that time is regularly schematized,  but there is not place  in apocalyptic literature, at least all the Jewish stuff,  where time represents something that is not time.

It’s one thing to say that the 1,000 years might not represent literally 1,000; it might represent an extended period of time, because numbers are symbolic. It’s another thing to say that the 1,000 years does not represent time at all, whether long or short, 1,000 or otherwise, but simply represents the victory of Christ.

The millennium is inaugurated during the church age as God limits Satan’s deceptive powers and as deceased Christians are vindicated by reigning in heaven. The millennium is concluded by a resurgence of Satan’s deceptive assault against the church and the final judgment (20:1–                                                 15)

Premillennial dispensationalism.

In this schema Jesus actually does come back before the millennium. Hence, pre-millennium.

If you’re a premillennialist, you believe Jesus comes before the millennium,  that’s where the name comes from. Dispensational simply refers to the view that God has arranged his administration of this world in a number of periods or economies during which he does things a little bit differently.

All Christians are dispensationalists in some sense, unless you’re somehow offering sacrifices on Mount Moriah. In other words, we all think there are some changes in God’s dealings with the human race from the old covenant to the new. In that sense, we all hold that there are different dispensations, but the term dispensationalist is most commonly tied to the view that there are seven dispensations across here.

Dispensational Premillennialism is a evangelical Protestant framework of interpretation noted for the way it distinguishes seven ‘dispensations’ or orderings of divine providence in human history:

(1) Innocence—Creation of Adam, ending in the Fall;

(2) Conscience—from the fall of humanity to the Flood;

(3) Human government—from Noah onward;

(4) Promise—from Abraham to Moses;

(5) Law—from Moses to the death of Christ;

(6) Grace—from the cross to the second coming of Jesus,

At some point, Jesus comes back and raptures the church out of the way. It’s gone. The whole church is gone, and with it the Holy Spirit as God’s agent for indwelling believers. The church is snatched away. With this also comes the resurrection of the just, but only of the just, from every age, with the believers who are alive at the time.

So all of God’s people are raptured out of the way and you have the first resurrection. Seven years of tribulation, then marks the onset of the millennium. During this period, you have the great tribulation. Some people call the whole period the great tribulation. Some people call only the first three and a half years the great tribulation.

During the second three and a half years of the seven year period, there is a remnant of Jews (and others, but primarily Jews) still being converted. Here, at the end of this period, all this terrible suffering and so on.  At the end of this period, those who die, those who are still left amongst the redeemed, are also transformed. The first resurrection is completed.  The seven years is thought by many to be that time of Daniel, to be Daniel’s seventieth week.

(7) Kingdom or the ‘millennial age’ which is believed to involve the personal reign of Christ, which ends with Satan temporarily set loose but quickly defeated. After the Millennium comes ‘the new heaven and the new earth’

Then there is at the end of this period a terrible struggle, the battle of Armageddon, the destruction of the False Prophet and the Beast of the time, and the onset of Christ’s millennial rule from Jerusalem, and Israel is restored. This is the kingdom era, Then right at the end of that, Satan is loosed again, but Christ destroys him. There is the final resurrection, the resurrection of the unjust, which then ushers in everything final, the new heaven and the new earth and hell.

Amillennial

There are several different interpretations of this 1,000 years in the amillennial camp. This is the view that says the 1,000 years are an extended period of time, a symbolic period of time, and in fact represent the entire period from the first coming of Christ to the second coming of Christ. That is the most common amillennial interpretation.

Everything depends, on that case, what you do with the Devil during that time, because the whole thrust of verses 1 to 3 is how the Devil is constrained.

What is characteristic of the millennium at this juncture?

Before you get to verses 4 and following, what is characteristic at this juncture, the Devil is bound, he’s thrown into the Abyss. Then when he’s in the Abyss, the thing is stopped up so he can’t get out, with the express purpose that he shall not deceive the nations.

It’s very strong language. Here people start arguing about whether or not the Devil was stopped up or not, what tends to happen is you get people quoting the verses, on the one hand, that seem to suggest the Devil is a defeated foe this side of the cross. Those who don’t like the interpretation, they go around quoting all the verses in the New Testament that picture the Devil as an enemy that still has to be opposed.

On the one hand: “I saw Satan fall from heaven” (Luke 10). “Resist the Devil and he will flee from you.” After all, we’re armed with the weapons of Christ and so on. On the other hand: “The Devil goes about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” “Sometimes he appears as an angel of light deceiving, if possible, the very elect.” “Make sure you have all your weapons on because he’s a nasty piece of work” (Ephesians 6).

So which side of the scale do you tip on?

What is your method to figure this out? It’s not wise to begin by citing a whole lot of verses from elsewhere in the New Testament. It’s not that the New Testament verses can’t be reconciled with this; that’s not the point. The point is you can look at the Devil as a foe who was defeated, in principle, in exactly the same way you could look at Hitler as the foe who was defeated, in principle, after D-Day. The thing was over. But on the other hand, you can look at it from the point of view of the slogging foot soldier; it  was not over for him yet.

You can look at it from different perspectives; it’s not as if you can’t reconcile the two. The problem is you must ask the first question, namely:

 How does John look at it? What is John emphasizing?

It seems that John emphasize, that until the end, Satan is in the position of chapter 12; that is, he’s been cast out of heaven, but on the earth he’s a nasty piece of work. He’s full of rage; he’s full of enmity against the woman and her offspring, and that is us!

That is so much a part of the book of Revelation; the Beast is behind so much in the book of Revelation. If he’s not behind it directly, then he’s using the second beast, full of deceit. He’s got the woman riding on his back. He’s there everywhere, he is using the Beast, who’s using the second beast, and the woman, the great prostitute, is riding the first beast. The Devil’s active all the time, and if one of the beasts dies, he comes back to life again.

If you are dealing with the thousand years (which may or may not be literally 1,000 years, but an extended period of time, at least it’s time), then you’re dealing with some period of time where there are blessings, somewhere, with the Devil stopped up more than he’s ever been, but not finally. In other words, there is a place in this schema for a bust-up at the end. He is released. That’s the whole difference. There is a place for a bust-up at the end, after a period of time when he’s not there.

Go ahead and ask this now.

“What on earth is this for? What does this add to anything? Why bother?

Well, it is hard to know.  Because there is nothing right here in the text that says, “And the purpose of this millennial splendor is the following 14 points,” or something like that, that would answer the question directly.

There are two themes that seem to occur through this book.

For all that God is mentioned throughout this book, from time to time, as a God of wrath, he’s still presented as having a longer fuse than the saints.

Remember in chapter 6, the saints are crying out, “How long, O Lord, how long?” God says, “Not yet, there are more people to get martyred.” In other words, this may be part of a piece with Romans 2 as well. God, in his great forbearance, is still providing opportunities for people to turn, to turn and not die.

As soon as Satan is loosed from his prison in the “Bottomless Pit,” he will find a vast multitude ready to believe his lie, and to serve and obey him. He will gather them from the “Four Quarters of the Earth” to battle. They will be in number as the “sand of the sea.” Rev. 20:8–9. The revolt will be Worldwide, and will mean the Mobilizing of Vast Armies. Satan will conduct them across the “Breadth of the Earth” until they compass the “Camp of the Saints”.

From this we see that the unregenerate heart is like a powder magazine, all it needs is a match to set it off, and Satan when freed will be that match. This the “last war”.

We see that the Millennial reign will end in failure. God will have tested man in “Innocence,” under “Conscience,” under “Self-Government,” under the “Headship of the Family,” under “Law,” under “Grace,” and finally under the influence of the “Holy Spirit,” free from Satanic influences, and under them all he will prove himself to be hopelessly, incurably and incorrigibly bad.

If after a 1000 years of the Presence of the King, and of universal peace and blessing, man still persists in rebelling against his Maker, what will there be left for God to do? Rev. 20:10

“And the ‘Devil’ that deceived them was cast into the ‘LAKE OF FIRE AND BRIMSTONE,’ where the ‘Beast’ and the False Prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.”

At the same time, it may turn out to be part of a vindication of God.

Suppose some were to argue, If we just had a just rule, if we just had a fair government, we’d be all right. We could withstand the Devil and all his cohorts. If things were structured properly, we’d be okay. It is like saying, the reason people are bad is because of their environment.

It may be that God will see to it for a while that things are structured properly. Then when the Devil is let free again, people blow it all apart again, those alive and operating at the time. So,   it becomes part of the vindication of God, the justification of God, which shows beyond the tiniest scrap of doubt that there is nothing, finally, that we can do to redeem ourselves. Even if things are organized for us, at the first whiff of temptation we lose it all again.

What is required, finally, is nothing other than a new heaven and a new earth: God taking decisive action at the consummation in a way that’s irreversible, or else we’ll blow it again. That says a great deal for God; it doesn’t say a great deal for us. That appears to be a pretty constant theme in Scripture.