We continue with,
The Millennium and the End of Sin
Once again based upon our Seventh Day Adventist friends’ interpretation of Rev 20:1-6 they say:
The millennium, begins with Satan being locked up in a pit, along with all the angels who chose to follow him (Revelation 12:4).
So where is this pit where Satan is to be locked up so he ‘might not deceive the nations any longer’? Though the Bible doesn’t specifically state it, we can infer this pit refers to the earth after the resurrection of the saints.
All the righteous have already been taken up to Heaven to live with Christ (Revelation 20:4), and the wicked are still dead in their graves (Revelation 20:5). There is no one on earth for Satan to deceive. The entire planet is empty, left in ruins, without a single human being (Jeremiah 4:24-26).
In our previous post we addressed the issue of how the millennium begins, viz., with the arrival of our Lord followed shortly thereafter by the first resurrection, but as to Satan? When it comes to the binding of Satan, specifically as to when, and by what means this is to be accomplished the brethren tend to vary a bit in their opinions’ therefore we will be presenting two different views, beginning first with the New Albany Notes on Revelation and then with Brother Shallieu’s work, The Keys of Revelation, both present strong cases.
We will address the remainder of their statement above as we come to it in this discussion.
As we stated in the opening of this segment our Adventist friends tend to have a rather distorted view of Rev 20:1-6 (actually of Revelation as a whole, but that’s something we will address in the next segment). Having already considered Verses 4-6 let us now turn our attention to Verses 1-3 as explained by the New Albany study.
VERSE 1 “Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand”.
“The angel here seems universally to be accepted as Jesus. This seems correct as his parable suggests that he would be the binder of the “strong man” (Matt. 12:29).
The abyss (or “bottomless pit”) represents the state or condition of powerlessness (as in Rev 17:8).
Remember this is a symbolic prophecy, the pit here spoken of is not a literal pit nor does it represent the earth as our Adventist friends suggest, once again a too literal interpretation of the book of Revelation (which is clearly stated to be a symbolic prophecy) has led to this false assumption. See, The Study of Revelation, Part 26, 27
A chain, of course, is a device of restraint. The suggestion is that the strong man is first restrained before becoming entirely powerless in the abyss or bottomless pit condition. Because Satan is the prince of darkness, it is likely that light is the device which binds him.
It seems obvious enough that the chain would be in the angel’s hand; so why specify it?
Hand is a symbol for action or works. It is clear that one of the primary works of the returned Lord is to bind or restrain the darkness. (Please keep in mind that, while this paragraph speaks of the personal devil, he is not the focus of these verses. It is his tool, the civil government, which is the primary subject of the binding. While this hampers the personal devil, it is not about him.)
We will take a look at Verses 2 and 3 in our next post.
The Millennium and the End of Sin
Once again based upon our Seventh Day Adventist friends’ interpretation of Rev 20:1-6 they say:
The millennium, begins with Satan being locked up in a pit, along with all the angels who chose to follow him (Revelation 12:4).
So where is this pit where Satan is to be locked up so he ‘might not deceive the nations any longer’? Though the Bible doesn’t specifically state it, we can infer this pit refers to the earth after the resurrection of the saints.
All the righteous have already been taken up to Heaven to live with Christ (Revelation 20:4), and the wicked are still dead in their graves (Revelation 20:5). There is no one on earth for Satan to deceive. The entire planet is empty, left in ruins, without a single human being (Jeremiah 4:24-26).
In our previous post we addressed the issue of how the millennium begins, viz., with the arrival of our Lord followed shortly thereafter by the first resurrection, but as to Satan? When it comes to the binding of Satan, specifically as to when, and by what means this is to be accomplished the brethren tend to vary a bit in their opinions’ therefore we will be presenting two different views, beginning first with the New Albany Notes on Revelation and then with Brother Shallieu’s work, The Keys of Revelation, both present strong cases.
We will address the remainder of their statement above as we come to it in this discussion.
As we stated in the opening of this segment our Adventist friends tend to have a rather distorted view of Rev 20:1-6 (actually of Revelation as a whole, but that’s something we will address in the next segment). Having already considered Verses 4-6 let us now turn our attention to Verses 1-3 as explained by the New Albany study.
VERSE 1 “Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand”.
“The angel here seems universally to be accepted as Jesus. This seems correct as his parable suggests that he would be the binder of the “strong man” (Matt. 12:29).
The abyss (or “bottomless pit”) represents the state or condition of powerlessness (as in Rev 17:8).
Remember this is a symbolic prophecy, the pit here spoken of is not a literal pit nor does it represent the earth as our Adventist friends suggest, once again a too literal interpretation of the book of Revelation (which is clearly stated to be a symbolic prophecy) has led to this false assumption. See, The Study of Revelation, Part 26, 27
A chain, of course, is a device of restraint. The suggestion is that the strong man is first restrained before becoming entirely powerless in the abyss or bottomless pit condition. Because Satan is the prince of darkness, it is likely that light is the device which binds him.
It seems obvious enough that the chain would be in the angel’s hand; so why specify it?
Hand is a symbol for action or works. It is clear that one of the primary works of the returned Lord is to bind or restrain the darkness. (Please keep in mind that, while this paragraph speaks of the personal devil, he is not the focus of these verses. It is his tool, the civil government, which is the primary subject of the binding. While this hampers the personal devil, it is not about him.)
We will take a look at Verses 2 and 3 in our next post.
