First...it is hardly going to effect the death rate of Christians world over if I change my mind on what the bible says on this matter. That rests solidly in God's hand, for God's purposes...regardless if Satan is bound or not at this time. God is Sovereign.
Secondly...if I am wrong, if Christ did NOT say that:
Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” -John 18:36 Explained already
Or if this is not true:
that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. -Ephesians 1:20–21 Not really relevant to the conversation.
Or if Rev 20 is not specific about this fact:
And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and 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. -Revelation 20:2–3 In the future
Then how about you attempt to prove it biblically? It has been proven to you over and over again, you just don't want to accept. If you want the truth proven biblically, it's simple. Just read it as literal. If what you are reading makes sense, don't seek another sense and if it doesn't than just focus on the particular passage.
But, don't you claim that in the Millennium, the time that Satan will be 'bound' and Christ will be sitting on his earthly throne, that there will still be death? Something about the 'unbeliever reaching 100 shall die'. And there still will be revolt against Christ? People banding together at the end against him. In essence, it's not that different from what we have now.
When you read all about the millennial kingdom and you can't see the difference perhaps you are being blinded by some evil (non Satan?) related entity.
You say that "deception isn't about going to war with the saints". But...what does Revelation say?
The Defeat of Satan
And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and 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. And 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, and 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. -Revelation 20:7–10
Heavy sigh, while Satan's ultimate goal is to war against Christ and His followers, Satan is will be deceiving the earth in much the same way as he is doing now. Repeating the lie from the garden, creating unrest and dissatisfaction, bringing new sins and temptations into the world, re-creating the same type of liberalism we see going on today, pointing people away from Christ with false messages, false prophets and false teachers. This isn't going to be a momentary appearance. I think this will go on for centuries or more until the devil gets enough followers to go to war again.
It's also interesting that you say "death won't be defeated until folks stop dying". 1 Cor 15 tells us when that is, actually...the defeat of death. It's at Christ's return...his "parousia"...παρουσίᾳ. And that is not at the end of your Millennium...fits with mine, however.
Death will be defeated for the individual believers in Christ but not for the world in general. As Rev. 20:14 declares, death won't really be defeated until after the millennium and the GWTJ.
These things are not mutually exclusive, in fact, I would say it's almost the point. Of course we know that the Kingdom is from God and dependent on our relationship with him. That was the purpose of the temple curtain being torn. In a very real way this spiritual relationship we have with Christ at our head IS the Kingdom, him ruling forever.
However, that does not change the very clear words of Christ...he did not come to set himself up as an earthly King...that was not why he came:
Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself. -John 6:15
And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever, -Daniel 2:44
Christ did not come to be an earthly king at that time. However, he will fulfill all of the Messianic prophecies the Jews were expecting at that time, at His second coming, including being anointed King over all the Earth!
At his triumph on the cross and his subsequent resurrection and ascention, Christ ushered in the Kingdom that would never end. It can never be destroyed because it rests on his victory and it will stand forever because it does not rest on the fickleness of this world. Having a 1000 year reign, only having that end with rebellion is not exactly what is in view here. Sure, Christ wins easily, but the Millennium then "ends" and we move on to the eternal state. That Kingdom still 'ends'. Scripture tells us that Christ's Kingdom NEVER ends. Either he has a spiritual, heavenly Kingdom now that he won with his victory that will stretch on into eternity, secure in his victory, or else we run into trouble that the text doesn't give us much leave to....You're confusing individuals with the world in general and no the kingdom will not "end" it just moves.
Ok. So...you guys go back into the OT searching for other texts to explain the symbolism? So...let me ask you....how, exactly, are you ANY different from us? That's exactly what we do. To a T.
Except the airplane. Don't know where you get that from. None of that in the OT, and certainly no lenience given in the text to allow for that, literal interpretation or otherwise.
The OT helps us to understand prophecy but it in no way defines it. We don't go "looking" for symbolism as in most cases, the NT defines the symbolism of the OT. If you are trying to base everything from the OT, you will never see the truth. Do you really think there is going to be a giant eagle taking away 144,000+? Sometimes you just gotta use the brains God gave us. Until fairly recently, no one could understand how the whole world at once could see what was happening with the two witnesses, but with the tech we have, that is now certainly understandable. As you said, how else is John going to describe things that he has no clue about? Only by using words and descriptions that are within his vocabulary. Part of the knowledge that will increase in Dan. 12, is just this type of thing.
Except, apparently, when you see demonic beings as helicopters. Yep, staying true to the literal hermeneutic there. I'm sure we can find those in the OT as well.
You know how the gospels all differ slightly? Why's that? Its because they're all from different opinions. Different angles. And yet, we still consider them reliable. In fact, we consider them reliable because they're slightly different. It'd be dodgy if they were exactly the same.
The same can be said for Revelation. Each time the visions 'cycle' they change slightly. Why? Because we are seeing them from a different angle. It gives us slightly different information. Or, it could be that they literally change in scope, size and origin as stated earlier.
But, it doesn't change the fact that many of the occurances are far too similar to brush off. As I've just mentioned in another post, they are either the same events, or cataclysmic occurances happen, only to "magically" un-happen so they can happen again later.
And I don't see any biblical evidence suggesting a sensible answer for this within the 'literal' hermeneutic.