![]() The early church until Augustine almost universally believed in an earthly, historical reign of Jesus, initiated by His return. Tragically, the Church through history has often ignored or denied the promise of the millennial reign of Jesus Christ. The Bible speaks powerfully to other aspects of the millennial earth. Through church history, there has been many different ways of understanding the Millennium. Till the thousand years were finished: This thousand-year period is often known as the Millennium. “People not only make falsehoods, speak falsehoods, print falsehoods, and believe falsehoods but they eat them, and drink them, and wear them, and act them, and live them, and make them one of the great elements of their being.” (Seiss)Ĭ. We know this because Peter said that Satan was free to walk about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8). We know that Satan was not bound at the finished work of Jesus on the cross, at the resurrection, or at the founding of the church. Since Satan’s work of deception continues today, we know that he is not bound in the way that this passage describes. And this deluding of men, getting them to accept and follow lies and false hopes, under the persuasion that they are accepting and following the truth, is the great work and business of Satan in every age.” (Seiss) ![]() Falsehood can have no power over us until we are led to believe and conclude that it is the truth. What we know to be a lie cannot command our respect… Untruth can only gain credence and acceptance by being so disguised as to appear to be the truth. “The truth is ever against him therefore falsehood is his particular recourse and instrument. Satan is a deceiver, so the most potent defense and weapon against Satan is the truth of God’s Word. ![]() That he should deceive the nations no more: This shows us Satan’s main mode of attack is revealed. “One very important detail is to notice that the conquest of Satan and his powers does not come by any human effort.” (Barnhouse)ī. This is a work done on divine initiative. This shows that there is no man who simply “binds” Satan with his prayer. If God did want to tell us of the total inactivity of Satan, how could He have said it any stronger? But this view does not take the text seriously. Some take this as Satan’s binding on a personal level, believing that is refers to how Satan’s work can be restrained in the life of an individual. “The elaborate measures taken to insure his custody are most easily understood as implying the complete cessation of his influence on earth (rather than a curbing of his activities).” (Mounce) If God can chain them now, He can chain Satan for 1,000 years. We know that right now there are demonic spirits who are imprisoned and chained (Jude 6). Some people ask, “What kind of chain can hold the devil?” We don’t know, but God can fashion a chain for that exact purpose. It will not resolve itself into anything else.” (Seiss) The battle is literal the taking of the Beast and the False Prophet is literal the slaying of the kings and their armies is literal Satan is literal and his binding must be equally literal. “Is this a literal transaction? Certainly it is. By implication, Satan’s demonic armies are also restrained and imprisoned. Here, God has no problem restraining Satan, and this incarceration is not for punishment, but restraint. Laid hold… bound him… cast him… shut him up… set a seal on him: Satan tried to imprison Jesus in a tomb, but couldn’t. But after these things he must be released for a little while.Ī. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. (2-3) Satan is imprisoned for 1,000 years. Yet God allows Satan to continue, because even in his evil, he indirectly serves the purposes of God. ![]() An angel coming down from heaven: This is a dramatic declaration that Satan is not God’s opposite or equal and that God could easily stop Satan’s activity at any time. “The final importance of Satan is perhaps indicated in the fact that it is not the Father who deals with him, nor the Christ, but only an unnamed angel.” (L. It is not Jesus Himself, nor is it Michael or Gabriel or any other high-ranking angel. An angel coming down from heaven: The angel that will subdue Satan is anonymous. Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.Ī. (1) A nameless angel comes to bind Satan with a great chain.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |