Is Satan bound now, or is that to come?

In Revelation Chapter 20, verses 1-3 it says,
"1Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain.2And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, 3and threw him 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. After that he must be released for a little while."

My question to the forum is this: has this already happened or is it still to come? Speculative conjecture aside, please provide contextual scriptural proof for your position.
God Bless,
Jeff

Jeff

This is all spiritual. Satan is bound now spiritually
and spiritually 1000 years denotes the timeless quality and not quantity of his bound state. Therefore in a spiritual sense he was bound before time began because time is material and as George Harrison once said we are living in a material world. Its all an illusion this present day reality because in the eyes of religion time does not matter and matter is not time, most of the time.
Hope this clarifies this for you.

Good question Jeff. Certainly Satan is still deceiving the nations, though he was defeated at the cross.

And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceives the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.

Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knows that he hath but a short time.

It sounds like here in Revelation 12:9,10,11 that to the believers in Christ, he is no longer able to deceive or frighten them as Jesus crushed Satan's head at the cross and with resurrection.

I know that Satan has no power over me as a believer, but I live in a place where there are many, many people deceived by Satan. (Mormonism being all around me and the effects of it.) By the way would you say a prayer for these people. Tomorrow is a Utah Holiday, designated Pioneer Day. The LDS church is revered and lauded as are the false prophets who continue to speak lies to a captured people.

Thanks Jeff.

Notdarkyet....um, George Harrison? Come now! Not a good source.

Days of future past? (Must write a song)

Is satan still deceiving the nations?
Was the kingly rule of god available to to other nations than the people of Israel in the OT? To some individuals yes such as Rahab or Ruth but entire nations and people were unaware of the nature or existence of a true god. There was no invitation extended to the nations to come and be under the rule of God. Not so in the NT. The gospel message has spread everywhere telling to the people of all nations to have Jesus Christ as their lord and king. The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed started with a few followers and grows big till it fills the earth. Satan can not stop this (spreading the truth) therefore he can not deceive the nations.
Is Satan bound?
After Jesus cast out some demons he said that no one can go into a strong man's house and steal his goods unless he binds that strong man first. Jesus and the disciples were able to cast out demons because satan was bound. This they could not do in the OT because satan was not bound.
In my understanding the 1000 years described in Revelation 20 1-3 is the church age (not literally thousand but many years) it started when Jesus came and ends around when He comes back which is still future to us and establishes his new rule with all the resurrected saints as citizens.

I know that this view is different from the view of the majority here. Please respect me by basing your critique only on scripture, and I can give you more scriptural proof if requested.

To prevent all misunderstanding I add this:
I believe that Jesus Christ came in the flesh, He is the son of God. He died for our sins and was resurrected, after resurrection he had a physical body, he assended to heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. Right now he is anointed king (Christ) he rules over his kingdom (his followers) and in the FUTURE he will come back.
Luke 17:20-21King James Version (KJV)

20 And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:

21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

Within you means within the group of believers, they also translate it as "in the midst of you"

To add to previous post:

Christ rules as a king over his followers through the Holy Spirit who is in all of them. He said that he has to go away but he leaves the Holy Spirit with us (in us).

I agree with you, Zsuzsanna.

John indicates that he "saw an angel coming down from heaven" (Rev 20:1), which is not necessarily a cosmologically directional statement but explanatory of divine activity just as "born from above" (John 3:3,7). God is not locked in a dualistic battle with diabolic evil for an eternal standoff, but God is sovereignly omnipotent to effect the defeat, the limitation and ultimate demise of the satanic adversary. The heavenly messenger carries the "key" of divine authority (1:18) "over the abyss" (cf. 9:1) and has "a great chain in his hand" (20:1). Since Satan is a spirit (Eph. 2:2), he cannot be held by a physical chain, so we must recognize again the symbolism of this activity.

The angelic messenger "laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years" (20:2). Exercising superior divine strength and power, the angel captured the adversarial opponent of Christ, previously identified in like manner (12:9) as the dragon, the Genesis serpent, the devil and Satan. He is the Evil One (Matt. 13:13,38; Eph. 6:16; II Thess. 3:3; I John 2:13; 3:12; 5:19) whose very nature is the personified source of all evil contrary to the character of God, the one from whom all sin (I John 3:8) and religion (Rev. 13:1-18) is derived. The failure to understand this theodicy causes Christians to berate themselves masochistically, to repudiate their humanity, and to focus their antagonism on human adversaries, even religionists, rather than on the Satanic adversary who energizes all that is in opposition to God. The first order for those engaged in warfare is to know their enemy.

In the picture that John draws for us the devil is "bound for a thousand years" (19:2). Keeping our heavenly perspective outside space and time, how is this to be interpreted? Should we attempt to identify any earthly counterpart to this action? Is this a future event that we should look forward to seeing fulfilled? Are we to apply earth-based time chronologies? Since Scripture is the best commentary on Scripture, can we discover any other occurrences where "binding" is applied to Satan? Yes we can. The Pharisees argued that Jesus was casting out demons by the power of Beelzebul because they did not want to admit that He was of God. Jesus explained that "Satan does not cast out Satan," and indicated that if He casts out demons, He has first gone into the "strong man's house" and "bound the strong man," Satan, and carried off his property, the demons (Matt. 12:24-29; Mark 3:22-27). Does this mean that Satan was incapacitated and rendered inoperable throughout the world because Jesus had "bound" him and cast out demons? No! Later Jesus told a parable about wheat and tares, the tares representing "sons of the evil one" who are to be bound and burned (Matt. 13:30). To His disciples Jesus gave divine authority in the "keys of the kingdom" so that "whatever they bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven" (Matt. 16:19; cf. 18:18). Avoiding the physical and tangible localization that is so often applied to the Satanic spirit, perhaps we can understand how limitations are imposed upon Satan's activity. When the seventy witnesses returned Jesus told them He "saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning" (Luke 10:17-19), indicating that a binding limitation was taking place. If one particular historical counterpart is to be identified with Satan being "bound," perhaps it would be the defeat of Satan when Jesus died on the cross. It was at that point that Satan was "cast out" (John 12:31), "disarmed" (Col. 2:15); "judged" (John 16:11); "thrown down" (Rev. 12:9,10,13); "rendered powerless" (Heb. 2:14), and his works "destroyed" (I John 3:8). Though it can obviously be argued that Satan is very active still today, "roaring and seeking to devour" (I Peter 5:8), "blinding" (II Cor. 4:4), counterfeiting (II Cor. 11:14), "capturing and ensnaring" (II Tim. 2:26), and "working" (Eph. 2:2), it must also be conceded that he is limited in his action. He does not have free reign, particularly in the lives of Christians.

The purpose of Satan's being "bound" is "so that he should not deceive the nations any longer" (20:3). When did Satan's deceiving of the nations begin? It commenced in the garden of Eden, and after the fall of man Satan's deception encompassed all of mankind, for "all the nations were permitted to go their own ways" (Acts 14:16). Satan reigned supreme as "the god of this world" (II Cor. 4:4). "The whole world lies in the Evil One" (I John 5:19). At the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil" in the garden, Satan defeated the first Adam (Gen. 3), but at the "tree" (Gal. 3:13) of the cross he could not defeat the second representative man, the "last Adam" (I Cor. 15:45), Jesus Christ. Rather, Christ defeated Satan, exclaiming from the cross, "It is finished!" (John 19:30), for the divine mission was accomplished and set in motion. The good news of the gospel to "all the nations" (Matt. 28:19) from that time onward was that the life of God could be restored to man by receiving Jesus Christ (I John 5:12), that Satan's jurisdiction would thus be supplanted (Acts 26:18), and his ability to deceive the Christian limited and curtailed. Christians who do not understand the defeat of Satan at the cross, often live deficient Christian lives by selling themselves short of participation in the victory of Christ in the battle already won! They fail to attain the maturity whereby they are not tossed and carried about by the "deceitful scheming" (Eph. 4:14) of Satan and his religious efforts. The victory of Christ over Satan was accomplished at the cross. Satan was defeated and no longer has universal unlimited ability to deceive mankind. This does not mean that he was annihilated, incapacitated or rendered inoperable. He is still the "tempter "(I Thess. 3:5), the "accuser" (Rev. 12:10), and the "adversary" (I Peter 5:8). But in accord with the pictorial portrayal, Satan has been "thrown into the abyss," the bottomless pit of his underworld activities, and it has been "shut and sealed over him" (20:3) so that we are "protected by the power of God for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time" (I Peter 1:5), "made safe" from Satan's right to rule over us and thus to abuse and misuse us and create deceptive dysfunction in us.

The parameter given for this restraining restriction and confining constraint of Satan is "a thousand years" (20:2,3). Let us not forget that we are viewing this panorama from a divine perspective beyond space and time, wherein "a day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day" (Ps. 90:4; II Peter 3:8). T.F. Torrance notes that

"we have no more right to take this thousand years literally than we have to take the ten-headed and seven-horned monster literally. It is entirely out of place therefore to bring down the thousand years out of its apocalyptic setting and place it on the ordinary plane of history, as if it could be handled by a worldly arithmetic and manipulated in calculations about the dispensations of time or about the end of the world. Such an intrusion into the secrets of God is utterly foreign to the Bible." 2

We have noted throughout this study of the Revelation how numbers are employed figuratively and symbolically (ex. 3 1/2, 7, 10, 12, 24, 666, 144,000), rather than with base-ten human arithmetical designation. The number of "one thousand" seems to represent the "full scope," "comprehensiveness" or "completion" of that which is being described. Throughout the Scripture it is often used with this meaning. God is said to "keep His covenant and His lovingkindness toward men to the thousandth generation" (Deut. 7:9; I Chron. 16:15; Ps. 105:8). Does this mean that God's character of faithfulness and compassion ceases after the literal "thousandth generation" of mankind? No, it refers to the comprehensive and eternal completion of His character. Likewise the psalmist indicates that God possesses "the cattle on a thousand hills" (Ps. 50:10). Is He limited to a literal "thousand hills" of cattle? No, he possesses all the cattle in the world, and the number of "a thousand" is used to point out the complete comprehensiveness of God's control over His creation. Contemporary English usage still uses "thousand" in a figurative way, an example being, "I've told you a thousand times..." We must beware of limiting God by literalness of humanly defined interpretations. Symbolic and figurative interpretations are "literal" when they correspond to the literary intent of the literature, which is the case in this instance.

The Greek word translated "thousand" in these verses is the word chilia. The Latin word for "thousand" is mille, and when conjoined with the Latin word annus meaning "year" it forms the basis of the English word "millennium." The theories of those who interpret this thousand year period as an exact thousand calendar year expectation in the future have often been labeled as "chiliasm" or "millennialism." This interpretation which expects Christ's return to be prior to such a precise thousand year period is also called "premillennialism," as distinct from "postmillennialism" which expects Christ to return after a thousand year period of increasing evangelism, and the misnomer of "amillennialism" which does not mean "no millennium" as the etymology of the word implies, but interprets the thousand years to be a figurative period as we are doing in this study. It is most regrettable that millennial theories have become such a divisive issue among Christian peoples, and that some Christians have so focused on this "thousand year" period referred to only in this paragraph, Rev. 20:1-7, that they have superimposed it upon the rest of Scripture as a grid for all Scripture interpretation. (See chart in Addendum H).

In the midst of this comprehensive period of "a thousand years" which seems to have commenced in historical terms at Christ's victorious defeat of Satan on the cross, John "saw thrones" (20:4) in heaven with God's people "seated in the heavenlies" (Eph. 2:6). "Judgment was given to them" (20:4), just as Jesus indicated that His followers would "sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel" (Matt. 19:28; Luke 22:29), and Paul wrote that "the saints will judge the world" (I Cor. 6:2). John also saw those martyred "because of the testimony of Jesus and because of the Word of God" (20:4). These were obviously Christians who endured physical death, knowing that spiritual life in Christ was of ultimate value. In addition, John saw "those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark upon their forehead or their hand" (20:4), these being Christians who did not succumb to religion and its idolatry, disallowing religion to stamp their thinking and their activity. These Christians are represented as having "come to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years" (20:4). Just as Jesus "was dead, and has come to life" (2:8), Christians have "come to life" passing "out of death into life" (I John 3:14). In so doing they "reign in life through Jesus Christ" (Rom. 5:17,21). To thus "reign with Christ" in His reign is to participate in "the kingdom of the beloved Son" (Col. 1:13), for the word "reign," basileuo, is the root of the word basileia which is translated "kingdom." The mistaken Jewish concept of a militaristic Messiah who would be a human king in a physical and nationalistic kingdom realm must not be transferred over into Christian interpretations of the kingdom reign of Christ during the "thousand year" period. Jesus explicitly said, "My kingdom is not of this world" (John 18:36); "the kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:20,21)

http://www.christinyou.net/pages/revhell.html

Wow.

But anyways, getting back to the actual text in Revelation 20 instead of cutting & pasting an entire argument that starts from a place of "what it can't possibly mean" & building a case of creative allegorization from that (& I don't need, nor do most people, lessons in "rational literalism" or "common sense literalism". I don't think a real "beast"
Is coming up out of the sea, literally. But I do think there is coming a beast, and a false prophet, & an antichrist, or son of perdition, ie man of lawlessness. And I do think there's a real devil, not just a "satanic spirit", etc.). Anyways, that's classic eisogesis. Importing into a text our own preconceived ideas rather than just drawing from a text and its context - ie Exegesis).

That aside, hopefully everyone (or most everyone) thinks the text actually means what it says when it starts back in Revelation 17 & 18 and talks about the fall of Babylon. And hopefully, most people actually read Revelation 19 and believe it when it says starting in 19:19...

19And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and against his army. 20And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshipped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur. 21And the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse, and all the birds were gorged with their flesh."

I hope you believe it means what it says & not that there isn't a beast or false prophet & that's just some metaphor or whatever (have to erase several scriptures to prop that up).

And I think it's noteworthy that the narrative very naturally flows right into Revelation 20 that starts out with "THEN I SAW..." So Revelation 20 is just the continuing narrative from Revelation 19. Those chapter divisions and verse numbers were adds by 2 bishops in the 15th century as we all know. Anyways, Revelation 20 starts out..

1Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain.2And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, 3and threw him 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. After that he must be released for a little while.

And then it goes on to describe what many see clearly as the Millennium. In the next verses, even though that really isn't what I am trying to establish with this thread, but just is Satan bound now or isn't he (but I am Going to stay going straight through the text):

4Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.5The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. 6xBlessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.

Again, this concerning specifically the Millineaum isn't even really the point I'm trying to make (I was trying to keep it simple to something I noticed in studying this), but as we go on immediately after this we see what things follow next:

Subtitled in many Bibles as
The (Final) Defeat of Satan (although I know that's not inspired but added):
7And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison8and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. 9And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, 10and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

And as we go into the last passages of Chapter 20, we see the Great White Throne Judgment Verses:

The Great White Throne Judgment
11Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. 12And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. 13And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. 14Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

And on it goes...

But, what we see as we go through Revelation 17, 18, 19, & 20 is this (in this exact order and every time transitioned from one vision to the next progressively with the language "and then..." With no indicators whatsoever this chronology should be jumbled or mixed up. And it all matches what we clearly know from other texts:

1.) The Great Prostitute & the Beast (Rev 17)
2.) The Fall of Babylon the Great
(Rev 18)
3.) Rejoicing in Heaven (Rev 19:1-5)
4.) The Call to the Wedding Supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:6-10)
5.) The Rider on the White Horse (Revelation 19:11-21)
6.) The Beast & the False Prophet thrown alive into the lake of fire (Revelation 19:20-21)
7.) "Satan bound for 1,000 years" afterwards which "he must be released for a little while" (Revelation 20:1-3)
8.) Those seated on thrones to judge whom authority to judge was committed & souls of those beheaded for the testimony of Jesus & the Word of God, came to life and reigned with Christ for 1,000 years, etc. (Revelation 20:4-6)
9.) after 1,000 years, the Devil is released, comes out to deceive the nations & is "thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and false prophet were, & they were tormented day and night forever."
(revelation 20:7-10)
10.) Great White Throne Judgement (Revelation 20:11-15)
11.) New Heaven & New Earth, & New Jerusalem come Down from heaven (Revelation 21)

So, notice that the beast and false prophet are cast into hell BEFORE Satan is bound. This section of Revelation is clearly one connected narrative. Chapter divisions (& even verse numbers) are added and are often helpful, but very often they are not & are actually harmful due to how we read and process them.

Some may say, "but Revelation isn't always chronological", or "Revelation is a very symbolically loaded book", etc. I don't totally disagree with those statements overall, but we are looking at these passages in their context. This portion of Revelation gives no indications at all that it's possibly "scrambled order", does it? In fact, we know the events of the beast and false prophet, the defeat of Satan, the great white throne judgement, & the new heaven's/earth/Jerusalem are all in order and can't be changed around, so why would we then assume Satan's being bound would be? In fact, why would God give these things to John (called the revelation of Jesus Christ & in the "clearer" New Testament, even the very last book) & go like this as an example in this type order:

1950, 1960 1970, 1945, 1980, 1990, etc.?

What I mean is, like on any IQ test in the world it would say, "which one doesn't fit or is out of place?" 1945 of course. Would God record the "Revelation of Jesus Christ", the last book of the New Testament, etc. like this with ZERO indicators in the immediate or surrounding context He was doing that? I don't think so? The only "case" anyone can make is going way outside of all this context because of "what it can't possibly mean" and importing presuppositions into the text. That's called eisogesis, not exegesis. It usually doesn't end well.

Anyways, I thought this examination of the text made the case well that Satan is not yet "bound for a 1,000 years", among many other reasons.

If anyone can show me from the actual context I am wrong, I am happy to see it. I will be honest though, if anyone cut and pastes a 20 page article from someone that doesn't deal with the text or context, I may or may not read it. Not to be disrespectful either. If someone looks at the context and says, "I don't know why it was written that way?", I could respect that more than totally leaving the text and context for a pretext on other texts with no context.

God bless!
Jeff

Revelation 20:4King James Version (KJV)

4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

4Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

Jeff, what translation are you using?

The KJV says that the souls... lived.
Your translation says that they CAME TO LIFE.
This sounds like some kind of resurrection but the KJV
does not say that.

If we do not believe the soul sleep doctrine, it is possible for a soul to live while it is not in a resurrected body, it lives for ever it does not have to come to life.

Revelation 20:5King James Version (KJV)

5 But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.

1 Thessalonians 4:16King James Version (KJV)

16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

So the question is:
When did/will the first resurrection take place?
1 before the 1000 years
2 after the 1000 years
3 both before and after the 1000 years but before the resurrection of the wicked.

The answer to this question can help us discover when exactly the 1000 year reign takes place.

From the above verses the first resurrection takes place after the 1000 year reign however some godly people could have been resurrected earlier. So some of the resurrected saints could reign with Christ even if the 1000 years is the church age.
According to this theory your points 1-3 could receive a different meaning (since it's a different paradigm), points 4-6 could describe (briefly summarize) the church age and rest of the history after it.
We can observe that both in point 6 and point 9 the devil will be thrown in the lake of fire. I think this happens only ones. I understand points 7-9 as the detailed description of the same events shown in points 4-6. I agree with points 9-10.
So I believe point 7 and point 4 happens about the same time in the beginning of the 1000 years which is the church age that starts with the bounding of Satan.

I don't think the above idea scrambles chronology too much It is still logical that first we summarize the events then detail them.

The above is strictly my uneducated personal opinion, the book of revelation is a very difficult book to understand.

But based on other verses (not from the revelation) I strongly maintain that we are now living in the kingdom of God and Satan is bound.

.
If Satan is bound then.......

1. Why is the devil still making war against the saints...Rev. 12:17

2. Why are we admonished put on the spiritual armor...Eph. 6:10-18

3. Why are we adminished to be on guard against the devil...1 Pet. 5:8

4. Why are we to resist the devil... James 4:7

5. Why are saints still overcoming the devil through martyrdom...Rev. 12:11

These questions come to mind if one is arguing that Satan is already bound.

Simply my thoughts.

I use the ESV in most things. I prefer it 1st & the NASB 2nd. The ESV is an "essentially literal" WORD FOR WORD translation as opposed to a THOUGHT FOR THOUGHT translation. KJV is not a "bad translation" relatively speaking overall, but it doesn't accurately translate WORD FOR WORD & in many places that becomes evident & an issue. I also don't like fumbling through thees, thous, & remnant of the Kingd Old English no one uses anymore. The only people that think there's something "Holy" or "inspired" In that is the "KJV ONLY" crowd. I am not saying that's you, but attempting to cut that off at the pass if any of that is lurking around waiting to argue for KJV Only. I've seen that a lot & won't even get into it anymore with a KJV Only person.

The Greek word used there is záō. It means:

"to live, have life, spoken of physical life and existence as opposed to death or nonexistence, and implying always some duration...Generally of human life...Used of persons raised from the dead as in Matthew 9:18, Mark 16:11, Luke 24:23, John 5:25, Acts 1:3 & 9:41; Revelation 20:4 & in the Septuagaint in 2 Kings 13:21..."
Spirits Zhodiates' Complete Greek New Testament Word Study Dictionary, Page 697

Tozsu how did you come to that conclusion,, that passage teaches ,that when christ comes ,the first resarection takes place ,and so does the 1000 year rane , when it says the the rest of the dead, did not live again ,that is speaking about the second resarection , of the wcked .. And the end of that age .

And like I said, no one gets these weird verse scrambling end points on how to read them from the context itself. That MUST be imported into the text. And a text without context is a pretext. This is the nature of eisogesis when studying scripture. In other areas of Biblical hermeneutics, study, & interpretation, the same people who would do this here (to prop up "their view") would find it egregious elsewhere if others did it to prop up a view in opposition to their view. And egregious it would also be. So, maybe, just maybe, what we are building on and importing into the natural flow, reading, & understanding of the events of Revelation 19-20 from other isolated "proof texts" aren't fully and completely properly understood? Maybe, just maybe, if we started into these texts of Revelation 19-20 (in the larger context of Revelation 17-21) looking at what it's actually saying & not starting from "it can't possibly be saying XYZ, so it must be saying something else, so let me see what works for my view...", We might come to a place of "wait a minute - How can this be?"

And when we start isolating single verses, tieing in a string of isolated verses, having to rely on the case some guy made in an article longer than The Illiad & The Odyssey to understand it, then it reminds me an awful lot honestly of the cases I have heard & seen over the years for a secret pre-tribulation rapture &/or Preterism (and often gets a "borderline gnostic" feel
To it where only those "in the secret knowledge" loop can "get it") But I believe such to be seriously faulty in light of the full counsel of the Word of God with all of its parts in context. So also do I believe this "satan is bound now" stuff.

The binding of satan is said in that when that happens he wont be able to deciev the nations ,,that is clearly still happening , and john said it was the whole world is under the sway of the evil one, that that was writtern after the church age had begun... So how could it be said that he is now bound

answer ia a quote from me:

Is satan still deceiving the nations?
Was the kingly rule of god available to to other nations than the people of Israel in the OT? To some individuals yes such as Rahab or Ruth but entire nations and people were unaware of the nature or existence of a true god. There was no invitation extended to the nations to come and be under the rule of God. Not so in the NT. The gospel message has spread everywhere telling to the people of all nations to have Jesus Christ as their lord and king. The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed started with a few followers and grows big till it fills the earth. Satan can not stop this (spreading the truth) therefore he can not deceive the nations.
Is Satan bound?
After Jesus cast out some demons he said that no one can go into a strong man's house and steal his goods unless he binds that strong man first. Jesus and the disciples were able to cast out demons because satan was bound. This they could not do in the OT because satan was not bound.

Notice that there can be no argument as to this being satan being released from the chains of darkness , becasue ....

12Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea; with great fury the devil has come down to you, knowing he has only a short time.” 13And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given..

Becasue in this verse he comes down to the earth ,not up from the abyss...

Jeff,
I do not fully understand the book of revelation. From all the books in in the bible that is the book that I understand the least. So when I am trying to interpret the text, I use the information from the other books of the bible that have been made clear to me.
It seems that Satan still can deceive individuals but the light of the gospel is available to all the gentile nations, unlike before Jesus came, so Satan can not keep captive whomsoever he wants because Jesus died for them and saves them from their sins and from slavery to Satan. There is no massive nationwide darkness, in almost every nation now there are some who have the light and it is spreading, fills the earth more and more. The nations are not sitting in darkness any more they have the light and hope of salvation. In that sense Satan can not deceive the nations. If in each nation there are some who are christians, the people of that nation have more chance to hear the gospel and repent, to be free from slavery to Satan so his kingdom always gets smaller by loosing subjects, and he can not do anything about it because he is bound.

Toszu,
I appreciate your response and your honesty. Honestly, that seems to be the typical response from people of Amillineal persuasion (it's in all the books and articles from All the common teachers responding to Revelation 20 so I hear it come back a lot). But consider these things:

It's the last book of the Bible. It was a vision (not a dream) given to the apostle John. It is called "The Revelation of Jesus Christ" (say that a few times and really meditate on that). Jesus said, "Blessed is the one who reads and understands the words of this book of prophecy." It ends with the most amazing words and events in al of human history. And then consider this, specifically on Revelation 19-20

Do you understand that there will be a false prophet & a beast? Do you understand what "The lake of Fire that burns with sulfur" is that they will be thrown into? Do you understand what martyred saints who have been beheaded for their testimony & the Word of God means? Do you understand something about what the Marriage supper of the Lamb is? Do you understand something of what the great prostitute being cast down and judged & all of heaven rejoicing means? Do you understand what the sharp sword "that comes out of the mouth" of Jesus means & what "dipped in the blood of his enemies & treading the wine press of the wrath of God means? Do you understand who the dragon, Satan, is? Do you understand what likely implications of being thrown into a pit, the abyss, & having it consequentially shut means? Do you understand what the Great White throne judgement where all the books are opened and everyone is judged means?

If we understand a great deal about all of these things from a plain reading of the ext and other scriptures on these EXACT events/people/places/etc. then why the "Revelation is a confusing book I don't understand as much as others..." Response? I'm not saying everyone must explain the entire book of Revelation or every detail either. I'm saying in context reading through chapters 17-21, & then ripping "satan was bound for 1,000 years" from its place, redirecting it to before chapter 17 & then jumping "back to the future" to chapter 21 is an eisogetical presuppositional butchering of the text with absolutely no contextual basis whatsoever for doing it, & so doesn't make sense. Was God trying to intentionally confuse everyone (except Augustine's/Origen & those who would later follow their interpretation?)? I don't think so. I don't think that's being responsible to the examination of the text itself. And "Revelation is a confusing book" (in places or by degrees) contributes nothing to the conversation on these texts in their context. It just looks like an imposed excuse honestly to not deal with the passages themselves head on. Seems more responsible to me to say, "I don't know...I see what you're saying & that makes sense, but I just don't know the answer.." Then to explain it away with strange methodology & "fanciful eisogesis" as John Piper called it in his message to the Gospel Coalition Conference last year with his message "The Branch of David".

And it's a non-sequitur response because

No one "FULLY" understands the book of Revelation in every part/detail, but that's not required to just look at this text in context

Do you understand that there will be a false prophet & a beast? Do you understand what "The lake of Fire that burns with sulfur" is that they will be thrown into? Do you understand what martyred saints who have been beheaded for their testimony & the Word of God means? Do you understand something about what the Marriage supper of the Lamb is? Do you understand something of what the great prostitute being cast down and judged & all of heaven rejoicing means? Do you understand what the sharp sword "that comes out of the mouth" of Jesus means & what "dipped in the blood of his enemies & treading the wine press of theirs the of God means? Do you understand who the dragon, Satan, is? Do you understand what likely implications of being thrown into a pit, the abyss, & having it consequentially shut means? Do you understand what the Great White throne judgement where all the books are opened and everyone is judged means?

Toszu,
That's fine. No offense intended, I'm just stating the obvious facts. Either way, scholars are split down the middle that Revelation was written before or after 70 AD. Nonetheless, we are getting (unnecessarily I think) outside the plain text again.

So, let's take your view & say it was written for them & not us. So are you saying the Wedding Supper of the Lamb has already happened? The Great White throne judgement (The Day of the Lord) has already happened? The devil has already been cast into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur (curious how he could then also be "roaming about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour"? & how "the whole world lies under the power of the evil one" if he's already been cast into hell & defeated & removed once & for all?)? And are you saying the New Heavens and earth & New Jerusalem have already come down from heaven? Etc. That certainly is the Hermeneutic you are applying to explain those few verses in Revelation 20 and if it's true, it should be true for the surrounding contextual narrative of Revelation 17-21 also? It's a complicated book at times overall for sure, but let's not then over complicate what is plainly written & gives us context. After all, Jesus ends this book (& the entire Bible) with a warning to all of us:

Revelation 22
18I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, 19and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book. "

Not at all saying you're doing that, but the warning is so strong & has such implications that being responsible and careful not to add or take away from it should be approached soberly, seriously, & responsibly (hermeneutically), no doubt. I don't think these one verses are complicated. I think we may not understand all that the Lord has not said, but we can stand on truth being conveyed here in its context based on what is said. I have found that no one arrives at Preterism, Total Absolute Historicism/Preterism, Complete Replacement Theology, and yes, even Amillineallism, etc. on their own through a plain reading of the scriptures. It's always "helped" along with the teachers of these "isms". Not that teachers, if good & Biblical, are a bad thing, but if their "new, amazing, secret knowledge of interpreting the Bible" is needed to understand the plain text & study of the Word, "something" is usually amiss. I believe that's the case here as Revelation 20 is plucked out of context, re-explained, placed in a different chronology then God put it in context, & if all that fails to convince, the "fall back position" is always, "I don't fully understand the entire book of Revelation...it's complicated..." Etc. Where else in the scriptures do we do this & it show in time & history it turns out well and accurate/true?

TMK,

Then these are good questions for you:

Then is The Great White Throne Judgement possibly just metaphorical?

How about the whole idea of Hell, the Lake of Fire? Is that literally a place or just an idea?

How about Jesus returning? Is that literal? Or metaphorical possibly?

The beast & the false prophet? Do/Will they really exist or are they just apocalyptic ideas of symbolic theory?

How about then the Wedding supper of the Lamb? Will there really be one? Or is it just a neat notion of apocalyptic imagery?

Or how about the throne of God where Christ sits with the martyrs crying out below it? Just a neat notion of word pictures?

You start down that road, then it's a "free for all" for "Did God really Say?" Sure, some things are clearly symbolic. That's why we use a "rational literalism" using common sense. I don't think a real actual 7 headed beast with ten horns is going to come up out of the Mediterannean Sea & neither does anyone else. But the devil? Jesus? The Judgement? Hell? These are all real bro! These ain't allegories. We can't make it up and pick and choose as we go. This is a contextual dialogue of visions that we believe in all of its parts & hve basic understanding of it. That's why using that as a fallback excuse to not explain Revelation 20 in its context doesn't jive IMHO.

TMK,
You said:
"What parts can, and what parts cannot be taken literally are anybody's guess. Everyone gets to pick and choose what they want to be literal."

I don't think that's well thought through brother. "Anyone's guess"? "Everyone gets to pick & choose what they want to be literal."

No. That may sound good to some as a non-defense defense but I don't believe that.

Consider in 2 Timothy 2 Paul said:

"15Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. 16But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, 17and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaus and Philetus, 18who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened.

Or how the entire book of Revelation opens in Chapter 1:

1The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John (*there goes that previous explaining away of the phrase concerning an angel from heaven just being some aetherial who knows what - my added) who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw.3Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.

And so, it seems there is a blessing in reading aloud the words of this prophecy, hearing it, & keeping it. So, there's something to it other than just "everyone makes it up as they go, so what difference does it make?" I think. And let me address a potential response upfront - for those who say (as Preterists do): "see, it says NEAR, SOON, etc. not 2,000 years later.." Again, 1,000 years is as a day to the Lord & Jesus said "I am coming soon!" But He still hasn't come back and that's been over 2,000 years ago, so there you go. And if you say, no, they were full of the spirit and had clarity now & even the prophetic was clear because of progressive revelation (and even though I believe in progressive revelation as a concept, but think it's generalized and over-applies to prop up these views- it is ironic that this is THE LAST BOOK of the Bible. 😊). And besides, if it was just for them and already all happened, then satan is already in the lake of fire, Jesus has already returned, The wedding supper of the Lamb & the Great White throne judgements have already occurred, the New Heavens/Earth/Jerusalem have already come down from heaven, etc. We her to at least be consistent and use some rational thought, logic, consistency right?

Jeff,
The great white throne judgement is future, bodily resurrection of the dead is future, throwing the devil in the fiery lake is future, new heaven new earth, heavenly Jerusalem are future. We have to examine each event whether they are future to us or were future only to the first century churches. The above events I examined and with my understanding and reasoning I can conclude that these are in the future for us. (my opinion) For many other events I am not sure, more examination is needed.

Edited to add: Jesus' second coming is future also.

Thanks Toszu,
Like I said (because I saw it) if everything around the context of the fist part of Revelation 20 is future (right before it and right after it) simple context seems to make us think that the first part of Rev 20 must be too (& with nothing in the text or immediate context pointing otherwise). This makes me think maybe we should all go back to "the other verses" & "other arguments" & see if we "possibly" showed up to Revelation 20 with some presuppositions whose foundations are not as rock solid as we thought. That is my main point really. Where we say "what is the text saying?" Rather than starting from the place of "it can't possibly mean XYZ, so let's think of what else it must mean...", etc.
God Bless you for your graciousness,
Jeff