revelation 20.1-3

A simple outline:

• The defeat of Satan begins with the First Coming of Christ as described in Re 12.7-9.
• The millennial reign described in Re 20.4-6 occurs before the Second Coming of Christ. This happens before the final judgment described in Re 20.11-15.
• The final judgment is associated with the Second Coming of Christ (cf. Re 22:12; Mt 16:27; 25:31-32; Jude 14-15; 2 Thess. 1:7-10).

In Re 20.1-3, for the purpose of keeping him from "deceiving the nations", we see Satan ("dragon", "devil") bound for a thousand years and cast into a place called the Abyss. Given the clear symbolism of the book of Revelation, it is not required to understand this thousand years as a literal thousand years. While it could mean that, it could also simply mean a long period that has a completeness to it.

Regarding the Abyss in Re 20.1, 3; since the “lake of fire” mentioned in verses 10, 14 and 15 is the place of final punishment, the Abyss is not likely that place. Rather, it is a figurative description of the way in which Satan’s activities will be curbed during the thousand-year period. How will he be curbed? One explanation is that he will be bound in a way that he cannot prevent the spread of the gospel nor gather the enemies of Christ to attack the Church.

In the Old Testament we see that all the nations of the world except Israel were under Satan’s rule. Wait, before you balk at Israel not being under Satan's rule. The idea is that unlike other nations, Israel were the recipients of God’s special revelation. They knew God’s truth about themselves. They knew about their sinfulness. And they knew about the way they could obtain forgiveness and salvation. The other nations of the world however did not know that truth and were therefore in ignorance and error (Acts 17:30). Of course there were exceptions in terms of an occasional person, family or city which came into contact with God’s special revelation. But this is a good general description. It could easily be said that these nations were deceived by Satan.

But with the First Coming of Christ things changed. Jesus gave his disciples his Great Commission (Mt. 28:19). At that point we entered the gospel era. Satan will not be able to deceive nations as he did in the past. He has been bound. We on the other hand are free to preach the gospel and make disciples of all nations.

Of course that freedom is limited. Satan can still do harm even though he is bound but he cannot keep the nations from learning about the truth of God. Later (Re 20.7-9), after the thousand years are over, he will be released from his prison and will once again deceive the nations of the world. He will gather them together to fight against the people of God. But now, during the gospel age, he is bound and cannot accomplish these things.

As an "already, not yet" kind of guy, I like how this fits with my "two kingdoms in conflict" understanding of this current age. Jesus has declared to us that we are able to see the work of His Kingdom because He has bound the strongman (Mt. 12:29) - similar to the language used by John in Revelation 20. Jesus' victory over Satan in the battle of wills in the wilderness, His casting out of demons, His healing of the sick, His bringing of peace to the downtrodden - all evidence of the presence of the Kingdom of God. This is the Gospel. The Good News of the coming of the Kingdom and its availability as God's free gift to us. It is demonstration and proclamation of itself and it can now be preached to all the nations (Mt. 13:24-30, 47-50).

If not taken literally, even Jesus' words, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven” (Lk. 10:17-18) is indication that Satan’s kingdom had just been dealt a crushing blow. Here, this binding has taken place with the missionary activity of the disciples. Further support of this concept is found in Jn 12.31-32. Here we again see language similar to Re 20 and interestingly it associated with the point that men of all nations will be drawn to Christ.

Therefore, while we now live in an age that is still influence by Satan, he has been curtailed in a way that he cannot prevent the spread of the gospel to the nations of the world and the nations cannot conquer the church - instead, the Kingdom of God is here and the church is conquering the nations.

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