Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Revelation 20:1

Coming down out of heaven ( ). As in Rev 10:1; Rev 18:1.

The key of the abyss ( ). As in 9:1.

A great chain ( ). Paul wore a (alpha privative and , to loose) in Rome (2Ti 1:16;, as did Peter in prison in Jerusalem (Ac 12:6).

In his hand ( ). “Upon his hand,” ready for use. See with the genitive in 1:20.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

Of the bottomless pit. See on ch. Rev 9:1. This is to be distinguished from the lake of fire. Compare ver. 10.

Chain [] . See on Mr 5:4. Only here in John’s writings.

In his hand [] . Lit., upon : resting on or hanging upon.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

SATAN BOUND, CAST INTO PIT FOR 1,000 YEARS v. 1-3

Note: see also Introduction Revelation

1) “And I saw an angel come down from heaven,” (kai eidon angelon katabainonta ek tou ouranou) “And I saw (recognized) an angel coming down out of heaven;” from where he had fought with the Devil and his Angels in defense of God’s people and property, Rev 12:7-8. Whether this was Jesus Christ or Michael, one of his chief Angelic servants to whom he had committed the key to bind Satan is not clear, Rev 1:18.

2) “Having the key of the bottomless pit,” (echonta ten klein tes abussou) “Holding the key of the abyss, the bottomless pit, as Christ holds the keys of hell and death, each of which he has conquered for believers (Heb 2:14; Rev 1:18), So does this Angel, perhaps Michael, the Angelic defender of God’s people and property, here hold the key of the bottomless pit, in preparation for opening and casting Satan therein, See also Rev 9:1; Rev 9:11; Rev 12:7-8.

3) “And a great chain in his hand,” (kai halusin megalen epi ten cheira autou) “And (having) a great chain upon (in) his hand;” carrying a chain, holding a key to this bottomless pit, the angel came down with great power and a fixed purpose; as angels (demon spirits) under Satan’s control are now said to be under chains (restraints) until the final judgment, even so it is to be considered that Satan is to be placed under more severe restraints and restricted to activities in the bottomless pit alone during the Millennial age, Jud 1:6.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

THE RESURRECTION AND MILLENNIUM

Rev 20:1-15

THERE is a vast deal more revealed concerning the Millennium than the average Christian has examined, studied, and systematized.

Three things in connection with the Millennium Kingdom are clear to even the superficial student of Sacred Scripture!

THE REIGN OF THE REDEEMER

And I saw an angel come down from Heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.

And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,

And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled (Rev 20:1-3).

Interpreters are commonly agreed that this is nothing less than Christs appearance to put away His great antagonist, the Devil and Satan.

In the midst of all struggles, in the days of deepest darkness, this promise has been the inspiration of the Church of Christ.

He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.

They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before Him; and His enemies shall lick the dust (Psa 72:8-9).

In Daniels day that same vision was the hope of the faithful; and the great Prophet says;

I saw in the night visions, and, behold, One like the Son of Man came with the clouds of Heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him.

And there was given Him dominion, and glory, and a Kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve Him: His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His Kingdom that which shall not be destroyed (Dan 7:13-14).

His sovereignty will be solitary. In the preceding chapter we saw that ere the end of the age was on the great dragonSatan, by his antichristwould rule over all the world. The mightiest kings would receive authority from him. When, therefore, he shall go down these shall all fall with him, and Christ shall reign alone. The 72nd Psalm promises Him dominion from sea to sea and also says, The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts, yea, ALL KINGS shall fall down before Him: ALL NATIONS shall serve Him. This promise of the Old Testament is repeated many times over; and it finds important place in the New Testament as well. Paul, in that wonderful Epistle on Eschatology, the 15th of 1st Corinthians, and the 24th verse following says: Then cometh the end, when He shall have delivered up the Kingdom to God, even the Father; when He shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign, till He hath put all enemies under His feet.

What it would mean for all the nations of the earth to be under one sovereign, no man can as yet understand. Then petty jealousies between peoples would be at an end; boundary disputes would cease; unjust restrictions in trade would be lifted; oppression from the people of one part against those of another unknown; wars would cease, and to the end of the world the doctrine of revelation that we are all of one blood would be understood as God sees it, and brotherhood would have its first opportunity at proper self-assertion.

The blackest, bloodiest pages of past history have been born of opposing rulers and divided governments.

That is a glorious day, promised in the Word, when the Son of Man shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.

It is related that the king of Prussia visited a village school and was welcomed by the children. Having spoken to them, he took an orange from a plate, and asked, To what kingdom does this belong? To the vegetable kingdom, Sire., The king took a gold coin from his pocket and asked, To what kingdom does this belong? To the mineral kingdom, answered the little girl. And to what kingdom do I belong? questioned the king. Upon a little reflection, the child answered, To Gods Kingdom, Sire!

It is said that tears stood in his eyes. As he placed his hand gently on the childs head he said, God grant that I may be counted worthy of that Kingdom. And the time is comingthe Millenniumwhen every king of the earth, instead of sitting in the place of power, shall prostrate himself at Jesus feet, for, as it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall how to Me (Rom 14:11), and all Kings shall fall down before Him.

His saints shall reign with Him. If there is to be a world-wide Kingdom, with Christ as Ruler, it is certain that He shall need, and shall have, His associates in the place of power. And we are told that those who have part in the First Resurrection, the ones on whom the second death hath no power that they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years (Rev 20:6). This vision of the Millennium is not one born of John, while in the isle of Patmos (as those who set the Book of Revelation aside might be tempted to say) for if we turn back to Mat 19:28, we shall find that Jesus Himself, whilst yet in the flesh, gave the promise. Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

It is little wonder then, that we find the mother of Zebedees children coming to Christ and saying unto Him, Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on Thy right hand, and the other on the left, in Thy Kingdom. Christ did not tell her she had made a mistake in asking that which was not to be accorded any man; but replied, by telling her that these unspeakable privileges should come to those who had been fitted for them by suffering, just as we are taught in the Book of Revelation; that the Apostle band, and the martyr company those who have long waited for the avenging of their blood are to hold first places in this perfect theocracy, when it shall come.

Dr. Chalmers tells us that in 1858 some people were digging in France, and they found eight costly crowns, all lying close together, having been lost, or hidden away in the earth. Four of them were very costly and beautiful, while the others were smaller. The first four were for the king, and queen, and the prince, and the second oldest child. The other four crowns were for the younger children of the kings household. And so, when Christ shall be crowned Lord of earth, even His little children shall share in the glory, for when the Chief Shepherd shall appear, we shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.

THE RESURRECTION OF THE RIGHTEOUS AND OF THE WICKED

There are few things clearer in this twentieth chapter than that the resurrection of the righteous and the wicked will not occur together.

There are a few passages in Scripture such as Dan 12:2; Joh 5:28-29 and Act 24:15 that would seem to indicate that the resurrection of the righteous and of the wicked will be at one and the same time. But the student of the Word must be impressed with the fact that no one of them asserts such to be the case, whereas the Scripture before us declares plainly a thousand years are to intervene between these mighty events.

The resurrection of the righteous shall precede and prepare the way for the Millennium.

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 (1Th 4:16).

When Paul wrote his First Epistle to the Corinthians, speaking of the resurrection, he said, But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christs at His Coming (1Co 15:23).

But the plainest passage in the Word of God is the sixth verse in the 20th chapter of Revelation which is the more meaningful in the light of its context

And I saw an angel come down from Heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.

And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.

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.

But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection (Rev 20:1-5).

The resurrection of the wicked will end the Millennium.

And when the thousand years are expired * *

I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another Book was opened, which is the Book of Life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; * *

And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.

And whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire (Rev 20:7; Rev 20:12-15).

The close student of the Word of God will see that there are four judgments set for the end of the agenamely (1) the judgment of believers, overpassed at Calvary; Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My Word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life (Joh 5:24). (2) The judgment of rewards for the saints, For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it he good or bad (2Co 5:10). (3) The judgment of the children of the Millennium (Mat 25:31-46). And, (4) this judgment of the dead in sin.

It is the last and most terrible to contemplate.

Jeremy Taylor tells of a certain Acilious Aviola who was seized with apoplexy and his friends, believing him to be dead, carried him to his funeral pile. But when the heat warmed his body, he awoke to find himself hopelessly encircled with funeral flames. In vain he cried for deliverance. He could not be rescued, but passed from torpor into intolerable torment. Such, says Mr. Spurgeon, speaking of the resurrection of the ungodly, will be the dreadful awakening of every sinful body, when it shall come from its slumber in the cemetery. The body will start up to be judged, doomed, and delivered from Gods presence into everlasting punishment.

And will the Judge descend?And must the dead arise, And not a single soul escapeHis all-discerning eyes?

How will my heart endure The terrors of that day, When earth and heaven, before His face, Astonished, shrink away?

But, ere the trumpet shakes The mansions of the dead, Hark! from the Gospels cheering sound What joyful tidings spread!

Come, sinners, seek His grace, Whose wrath we cannot bear;Fly to the shelter of His Cross, And find salvation there.

The Millennium will be marked by

A FULL AND FINAL REDEMPTION

According to this chapter it means the redemption of the individual. For the living it will effect an escape from death; and a transition to immortality.

Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality (1Co 15:51-53).

For the dead, by resurrection, there shall be wrought the same glorious change. The dead shall be raised incorruptible. What else does a man whose soul is saved, need to complete his redemption, except to have such a change come over his bodythat temple of the Holy Ghostas will make it a fit habitation for Him, and for the Spirit with which God has possessed it? The greatest trials of life; the greatest annoyances; most frightful sins possible, are in consequence of physique, unredeemed. That is what Paul means in Romans 7th chapter,

I am carnal, sold under sin.

For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate that do I.

If then I do that which I would not, * *

It is ho more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.

For I delight in the Law of God after the inward man:

But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

That is the cry of every one of us. We are tethered, as it were, to a tenement that takes on the form of our very personality; and yet has a hundred open doors for the incoming of the evil one. When Christ returns and the dead are raised, those of us that are alive and remain, are to be redeemed from all this, and shall shout with the Apostle, when the mortal puts on immortality, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

I like to think of the body as it shall be with all corruption goneincorruptible; with all dishonor removedglorious; with all weakness taken awaypowerful; with all carnal appetite destroyed spiritual.

I will not attempt to say just what likeness the body then shall sustain to the body now, for the Scriptures are silent other than as to its identity. We are told that it is the same body. But as Christs body was glorified so this one is to be, and that its power and beauty are to be past conception is seen in one sentenceBeloved, * * it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.

The Millennium will also mean the redemption of the nations. It will bring into the world some of the fundamentals of a successful warfare against the deceiver. Christian evidence will be overwhelming. There are people in the world today possessed of honest doubt touching the Deity; people who cannot understand the atonement; whose eyes are darkened to the cleansing Blood. But, when Christ shall come and sway the scepter over the whole earth, infidelity will die before His face, even as certain vermin of the earth cannot live in the light of the sun. There will be no Rationalism then, for every eye shall see Him; no rebellionevery knee shall bow to Him, and no silence or shameevery tongue shall confess to God. Take the infidelity out of the world today, and you do more toward bringing in a new earth than is possible to human imagination.

In the second place, deception shall be removed. We are distinctly told, with reference to this Millennial period, that an angel shall come down from Heaven, and lay hold on the dragon, that old serpent which is the devil and Satan, and bind him for a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled.

What is the chief difficulty of evangelization today? Why is it that the unconverted man and woman and child of the earth are content to be Christless? Why is it that our blind pigs are so frightfully patronized? Why is it that our gambling dens are places of congregation? Why is it that the strange woman hath power in the streets? Only because Satan, that old deceiver, lives and does his work; only because men are brought to believe that they can enjoy sin and escape sins resultdisease, despair, death.

Why is it that when one preaches, and makes the best appeal possible; to those who are without Christ, many of them reject Him afresh, resist the Blessed Spirit, and walk out into the blackness of darkness? Only because the devil lives, and men are deceived.

Remove that deception once, and then let us preach! Oh, the privilege of it! God grant us some days of such a ministry!

Fifty years ago we heard the Kentucky mountain evangelist Barnes, once say that when he had finished his ministry here he hoped to be privileged to preach in hell to the spirits in prison! Poor privilege! To preach to men who are under the remote power of Satan is discouraging enough; to speak to those who are under his immediate control would break ones heart; but to preach in this worldwhen once Satan, that old deceiver, is set aside, and men are no longer under the clouds of his delusion! It is an ecstasy to anticipate that!

Pilate could have been saved by the preacher, but for Satan, the deceiver.

Felix would never have asked for a more convenient season, but for the devil.

The rich young ruler would have parted with earthly treasure for a heavenly estate, if Satan had been then bound; and so, when we can go forth in this world to preach to men of clear minds, and open hearts, what wondrous things shall be wrought!

In that day, evangelization also will be undertaken in earnest. Ezekiel had a vision of the angels flying through the heavens with the everlasting Gospel, and I am not sure but they shall have part in it.

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.

Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing:

And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

If you want a vision of what that day shall be, read the 60th chapter of the Book of Isaiah, and be not faithless, but believing. Gods purpose for this world is not going to fail, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.

Cookman said, as he anticipated this time, I hail the day, not far distant, when from the watch-towers of Asia, once the land of lords many, there shall roll out the exultant chorus, One Lord; when from the watch-towers of Europe, distracted by divisions in the faith, there shall roll up the grateful chorus, One faith; when from the watch-tower of our own America, torn by controversies respecting the initiatory right into the visible Church of our Lord Jesus, there shall roll forth the inspiring chorus, One baptism; when from the watch-towers of Africa, as though the God of all the race were not her God, as if the Father of the entire human family were not her Father; when from the watch-towers of neglected and despised Africa, there shall roll forth the chorus, One God and Father of all; when the sacramental host, scattered all over the face of this lower creation, shall spring upon their feet, and, seizing the harps of thanksgiving, they shall join in the chorus that shall be responded to by the angels, One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in (us) all; to whom be glory, dominion; and majesty, and blessing for ever!

Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley

THE THOUSAND YEARS

CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES

EMINENT expositors, ancient and modern, regard the opening of this chapter as referring to an early period in the history of the Church, but there are many writers who consider the events as occurring in immediate succession to those foreshown in the end of chap. 19. Stuart points out the intentional brevity with which this portion of the prophecy is treated. The events of a thousand years; the invasion of Gog and Magog, with their defeat; the ultimate confinement and punishment of Satan; and, lastly, the general judgment;are all crowded into the space of twelve verses. This shows that the very distant future is designed to be merely glanced at by the writer. So it is with the Hebrew prophets. But here there is a special reason for brevity. The main object of the book is already accomplished. Christians have been consoled by assurances that all the enemies with whom the Church was then conflicting, would surely be overthrown. To complete an epic plan which involves a climactic progression of events, and to gratify the taste and feelings, the last part of the book is added. It seems to be added mainly for this purpose. Mere touches and glances are all which it exhibits, or which were intended to be exhibited. The eye of hope is directed forward, and sees the thousand years of uninterrupted prosperity; then the sudden destruction of a new and final enemy, and all the rest is left to joyful anticipation.

Rev. 20:1. Bottomless pit.Explained in note on Rev. 9:1.

Rev. 20:2. Old serpent.See on Rev. 12:9. Thousand years.A figurative, not literal, period. With the Lord a thousand years is as one day. It is safer to regard it as representing a prolonged, in contrast with a limited, period.

Rev. 20:4. Thrones.Compare Dan. 7:9; Dan. 7:22. There seem to be two classes of faithful souls introduced: those who had made the martyrs testimony, and those who had given the testimony of noble lives. Reigned with Christ.A figure for that kind of ruling power and influence which steadfast and heroic men and women always gain and exercise wherever they may be, even as Christ gained and exercised.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Rev. 20:1-15

The Millennium-Picture.The millennium-vision is, like so many of the apostolic visions, an ideal picture; it exhibits a state of things which is possible to mankind at any time. The vision has its approximate fulfilment, as the Church, in the faith of the reality of her Lords victory, carries on her warfare against the prince of this world, and spiritual wickedness in high places. That this approximate fulfilment is not unreal may be seen in the fact that Christendom has replaced heathendom; Christ has taken the throne of the world; the prince of this world has been judged; the ascendency of Christian thought and Christian principles has marvellously humanised and purified the world. To an Irenus, a Polycarp, a Justin Martyr, a Tertullian, the picture of the world during the Christian centuries would have the aspect of a millennium, when contrasted with the age of Pagan dominion and Pagan persecution. In their eyes, accustomed to the darkness of heathenism, the world, as influenced by a widely-diffused Christianity, would seem to be a world in which Christ ruled. They would see, in the acknowledgment, of apostles and martyrs and confessors, the wondrous resurrection-power of Gods truth; they would see how they, who fell for Christ, had stepped from their forgotten graves to sit down with Christ in His throne. The apostles, the martyrs, the faithful, do reign with Christ. The sovereignty of the world belongs far more to St. Paul and St. John than to Nero or Galba. But though thus the saints rise and reign with Christ over Christendom, we can see that this is only an approximate realisation, and falls short of the ideal picture. Christendom established and heathendom overthrown would be a millennium in the eyes of an Ignatius; but the Church of to day looks for a further and higher fulfilment. Is she justified in this expectation? If the principles we have laid down are correct, she is justified. She can accept the first-fruits of Gods promises, but she will not mistake them for the harvest; she can rejoice in the growth of her Lords kingdom, but she looks for the day when the powers of evil will be more effectually curbed, and the gospel will have freer course. Then the fulness of Christs victory will be more clearly seen.Bishop Boyd Carpenter.

ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 20

Rev. 20:12. The Final Judgment; The Certainty of Its Decisions.There is a machine in the Bank of England which receives sovereigns, as a mill receives grain, for the purpose of determining wholesale whether they are are of full weight. As they pass through, the machinery, by unerring laws, throws all that are light to one side, and all that are of full weight to another. That process is a silent but solemn parable for me. Founded as it is upon the laws of nature, it affords the most vivid similitude of the certainty which characterises the judgment of the great day. There are no mistakes or partialities to which the light may trust; the only hope lies in being of standard weight before they go in.Arnot.

The Record of Our Lives.With every turn of the turnstile on Waterloo Bridge a record (in the old time) was made against the gatekeeper, and he could not recall or obliterate it. Every movement of the wind over Greenwich Observatory, steady or capricious, fast or slow, is self-registered, with pencil and paper, by an apparatus communicating to a room below, in which blank paper is presented to the pencil by clockwork; and these autobiographical memoirs are carefully preserved. So constant and unerring is the record kept in the book of Gods remembrance concerning all our actions, and even every idle word that men shall speak (Mat. 12:36).

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Strauss Comments
SECTION 65

Text Rev. 20:1-3

And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. 2 And he laid hold on the dragon, the old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, 3 and cast him into the abyss, and shut it, and sealed it over him, that he should deceive the nations no more, until the thousand years should be finished: after this he must be loosed for a little time.

Initial Questions Rev. 20:1-3

1.

If Christs work on the cross actually defeated Satan and his powers of darkness, why do we read in Rev. 20:1 that Satan is being bound for a thousand years (a limited period of time)?

2.

Is Satan to be found with finality according to Rev. 20:3?

The Thousand Years of Satans Captivity and the Martyrs Reign

Chapter Rev. 20:1-6

In this chapter men have supposedly found the biblical justification for millennial theories (see the Special Study after this chapter). We have just finished the section in Rev. 19:19-21 in which Johns vision carried us to the end of sin dominated human history and the day of the wrath of God. It cannot be shown by merely examining the text (or any other way) that the material in the Seer of Patmos visions are chronological. In fact, if we were entering a technical discussion, we would assert that most of the material in The Revelation is repetition which develops in intensity of judgment, i.e., the three series of the seals, the trumpets, and the bowls of wrath. Chapter 20 is a more detailed description of the final judgment than was given in the last verses of chapter 19. We must not be led astray by the chapter and verse divisions. Basically their purpose is to show a change in the content of what is being discussed; but John wrote The Revelation under the direction of the Holy Spirit, and he used no such divisions. We must therefore be most careful in our evaluation of the materials. Millennial theorists assume that the materials in The Revelation are also chronological and this assumption enables them to claim that the imagery of chapter 20 does not reveal the same final judgment as does Rev. 19:19-21. (If available, always consult Lenskis work on The Revelation, see bibliography.) Since Rev. 20:3 is the only place in the N.T. where the word millennium (the Greek word is chilia ete a thousand years; Millennium comes from Latin and also means a thousand years) occurs, we must be very careful in our analysis of this section of scripture.

The relationship between chapters 19 and 20 are similar to those of chapters 11 and 12. In chapter 11 the end had come (see especially Rev. 11:15-19), but in chapter 12 we return to the human situation. The man-child is born and immediately Satan seeks to kill Him. Satan continues to overcome the man-child, until Satan and all forces are completely destroyed by the victorious Lord (Rev. 19:11-16). The host of the saved follow their regnant redeemer. (See Marcellus J. Kik, Revelation Twenty, an exposition, The Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., Box 185, Nutley, N.J. This work is a very good basic study by a conservative Calvinist.

Note: Do not be disturbed by our frequent citation of Catholic and Calvinistic works. No one else is producing any serious studies of the Bible and biblical problems (except of course those who deny that The Bible is The Word of God).

The coming again of our Lord, and the signs which will precede His return are two of the most discussed and written about topics among people who accept the Bible as the Word of God. Even the Ecumenical world is producing an almost endless supply of literature on Christian Hope. In this body of literature the great coming events such as the coming again of Christ, the resurrection, of the just and the unjust, the day of judgment, and hell and heaven are reinterpreted (or really interpreted away) according to contemporary Existential hermeneutics. (See the brief, popular presentation of some of the problems in Prof. Lewis Fosters Basis for Historical Jesus, The Christian Standard, July 13, 20, 27, 1963.)

What is the thousand year period of which we read in Rev. 20:3? Is Christs coming again connected with this period?

Rev. 20:1

John saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key of the abyss and a great chain on (epi hanging down from his hand. The chain was not contained in his hand) his hand. In our study we will emphasize only two factors in this section of scripture (Rev. 20:1-3); (1) The binding of Satan and its relationship to the Millennium; and (2) the reign of the Christians with Christ in the Millennium.

Rev. 20:2

The angel laid hold of (ekratsen 1st aor. ind. active expresses the actual, complete act of binding) the dragon, the old serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound (edsen 1st aor. ind. active, expresses the fact that Satan is bound) him for a thousand years. (See 2Pe. 3:8 But forget not this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.). What can this binding of Satan mean? Are there any other passages of scripture which speak of the binding of Satan? If the work of Christ on the cross completely and once-for-all overcame Satan, why is his power and influence still very evident in our own lives, the Church, and most assuredly the world?

Peter tells us in his second epistle that–If God spared not angels when they sinned, but cast them down to hell, (Greek is tartarus), and committed them to pits of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;—-(2Pe. 2:4). Is it possible that Satan is bound in a limited sense, but never-the-less, still bound? Satan was permitted to test Job. Yet, in specific sense he was bound (i.e., limited as to what he was allowed to do). Paul tells us all (1Co. 10:13) there hath no temptation taken you but such as man can bear: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able; but will with the temptation make also the way of escape, that ye may be able to endure it. Paul here claims that Satan is really limited or bound. (Note that the imagery of chains binding Satan is a metaphor, therefore figurative). Our Lord gives us an illustration of the binding of Satan. One day Christ was casting out demons, and His opponents accused Him of doing it by the power of the prince of devils, Beelzebub. (Mat. 12:24; Mar. 3:22; Luk. 11:15.) Christs reply was in the form of a parable. Mat. 12:29 —-Or how can one enter into a strong mans house, and seize his vessels, if not first he binds the strong man? and then he will plunder his house. We must keep two facts in mind; (1) Christs work has already defeated Satan; and (2) Satans influence seems to increase rather than diminish. Paul makes this point very clearly in 2Th. 2:1-3 —-Touching the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together unto him; to the end that ye be not quickly shaken from your mind, nor yet be troubled, either by spirit, or by word, or by epistle as from us, as that the day of the Lord is just at hand; let no man beguile you in any way: for it will not be, except the falling away come first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition—-

The above brief discussion enables us to claim that Satan is actually bound, but his limitations respect only certain activity. What reason does the text give for the binding of Satan?

Rev. 20:3

The answer to the above question is given in this verse. Satan is shut up in the abyss in order that (hina clause the purpose clause again) he should not deceive (planse 1st aor. act. subjunctive the aor. subj. with the negative me, as here, is to be understood as an imperative) any longer the nations, until (achri clearly asserts that the time will come again when Satan shall deceive the nations) the thousand years are finished; after these things he must (dei absolutely necessary) be loosed (luthnai 1st aor. infinitive, passive voice signifies that Satan will be loosed by someone else (God), and not because he is powerful enough to break his binding chains) a little while. Satan was bound in order that he could not deceive the nations any longer, but in Rev. 20:8 we note that he shall come forth to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth,—. The dragon and his angels were cast down into the earth (Rev. 12:7 ff), and he knew then his time was short. What is implied in Satans deceiving of the nations? The Bible (it is opposed to universalism in every form) never asserts that the whole earth will be saved. What is the possible relationship of the missionary enterprise and the deceiving of the nations? The original language of both Old and New Testaments have specific words for the people of God and the nations of the world. Examine the Roman Epistle for a possible commentary on these matters. Pauls argument in Rom. 1:18 to Rom. 2:16 is that the Gentiles are lost. He states that God gave them up three times (Rom. 1:24; Rom. 1:26; Rom. 1:28). This passage in The Revelation does not claim that the people of God are deceived; but rather, the nations which are in the four corners of the earth. Only the Church shall be empowered to avoid the deception! Satan deceives the nations so thoroughly, that they refuse the Gospel which is the power of God unto salvation. John is speaking only of the nations as a whole; he is not declaring that there might not be individuals who escape deception. Ours is an age when individualism is all but dead. Mass-man has replaced the individual. Depersonalized, dehumanized man is being prepared (via Madison Avenue techniques of manipulation) to be deceived at the international level. The masters of cybernetics (the Greek word for a steersman on a ship) can sway unnumbered multitudes. Are we being prepared in our day for the fulfillment of Rev. 20:8? Paul said in 2Th. 2:11 that God will send a strong delusion, that (hina or purpose clause) they should believe a lie. Christ commissioned His Church to preach the saving Gospel to all nations. Christ went on to say that when this was done then the end would come.

Remember that John introduced five enemies of Christs church in chapter 12. The Revelation clearly tells us of their ultimate doom, but the information about their defeat is contained in more than one vision. The visions before this chapter have revealed the destruction of four of the five enemies introduced in chapter 12; only one remains Satan. Christs victory over every enemy is the binding thread of the entire book. When Satan is cast into the lake of fire and sulphur in Rev. 20:10 that is the end of all of Christs enemies.

Discussion Questions

See Rev. 20:11-15.

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

Tomlinsons Comments

CHAPTER XX
THE THOUSAND YEARS

Text (Rev. 20:1-15)

INTRODUCTION

1 And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. 2 And he laid hold on the dragon, the old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, 3 and cast him into the abyss, and shut it, and sealed it over him, that he should deceive the nations no more, until the thousand years should be finished: after this he must be loosed for a little time.
4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God, and such as worshipped not the beast, neither his image, and received not the mark upon their forehead and upon their hand; and they lived, and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 5 The rest of the dead lived not until the thousand years should be finished. This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: over these the second death hath no power; but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
7 And when the thousand years are finished, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, 8 and shall come forth to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to the war: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. 9 And they went up over the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down out of heaven, and devoured them. 10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where are also the beast and the false prophet; and they shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat upon it, from whose face the earth and heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne; and books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works. 13 And the sea gave up the dead that were in it; and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. 14 And death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, even the lake of fire. 15 And if any was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire.

Shall we take a very brief parting look at the preceding chapter, before taking up the consideration of the one before us.
The portrayal of Christ coming seated on a white horse, followed by his armies, also on white horses, has been interpreted by some, who are advocates of His visible return before the Millennium, as substantiation for their theory called Pre-millennialism.

They maintain this description as given in Rev. 19:11-16, pictures a personal coming visible to all eyes, and is the second advent often referred to in the Scriptures. Such advocates need to consider some very serious objections before accepting such a theory with too much enthusiasm, or spiritual fervor. Only a few objections are listed here:

First, The language here is in the realm of symbolism.

Second, That this being so, how can they interpret this as a visible return at this particular time, without including a literal sword protruding out of his mouth?

Third, Then, this must be an actual horse and he must have eyes from which flash a flame of fire.

Fourth, He must actually be clothed in a vesture dipped in blood.

Fifth, His armies must be real men with literal bodies (and that before the resurrection of the body) riding upon real horses.

That there is to be a literal, personal return of Christ is a well-established truth in the Scriptures, but in this instance to make His return literal and personal when the language is purely symbolical leads to confusion. Logic demands that if this is His personal and literal return, then that return is accompanied by literal horses and all other manifestations attendant to this description here must be considered literal.
All this false, unscriptural and misleading concept has come about by those who advocate the doctrine known as Pre-millennialism.
The term pre-millennialism is no where to be found in all the Scriptures. Then, does not reason, logic and love for Gods thus saith the Lord prompt, yea compel us to be silent where the Scriptures are silent? All who believe in the divine inspiration of Gods Word recognize the truth that we must speak where the Bible speaks. Ought not there be as reverent a recognition of the necessity of being silent where the Bible is silent?

Never once did Christ mention Pre-millennialism. Was it because He had not the time in his brief ministry to refer to it? Or is it as John said, There are also many other things which Jesus did, the which if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written? (Joh. 21:25)

Of all that has been written in Gods inspired Word, not once is the expression pre-millennialism included. Yet, today, perhaps no word is used so much or heard so frequently as this one, even by those who pride themselves as being fundamentalistsanother unscriptural term, by the way.
Upon another occasion Christ said to His apostles, and, in his farewell conversation when every word was freighted with sublime meaning:

I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot hear them now (Joh. 16:12)

Was the term pre-millennialism to be among the things yet to be revealed? He promised that further revelation (all things) should be completed after the Spirit should come, even to the giving of new propheciesHe will show you things to come. His words to them are:

Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak and he will show you things to come. (Joh. 16:13)

Yet those same apostles who were all filled with the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost spoke, even with other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance (Act. 1:26); (Rev. 2:1-4) never in all their labors ever so much as once let fall from their lips this oft heard word of the present dayPre-millennialism.

It could not be because their memories failed them, for the spirit was to bring them remembrance all things Christ had said to them. Said Christ on this matter of remembrance:

But the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. (Joh. 14:26)

Then we are forced to one of two, or even both conclusions.

First, Christ did teach pre-millennialism and sent the Holy Spirit to remind his apostles of all things, among which would be this doctrine, if its advocates are right, and that the Holy Spirit failed to remind, not one, but all the apostles, including Paul chosen out of due season, to mention this doctrine by the name used so frequently today.

Or second, the Holy Spirit did remind them and they failed to speak as the Holy Spirit was to give them utterance.

Either conclusion is utterly untenable and preposterous, even sacrilegious.
There is only one logical, ethical and scriptural decision left us. The term pre-millennialism never once crossed Christs lips, therefore the Holy Spirit did not have this word to bring to their remembrance. Pre-millennialism was never among all things to be remembered.
Furthermore, it was not among the many things Christ had yet to say unto them, which they yet were not able to hear.
It was not among the things the Holy Spirit was to hear of Christ, neither was it among the things of which it was said, He shall show you things to come.

It was not among the all truth into which the Holy Spirit was to guide them.
There is a truism recognized by every close student of divine truth, a self-evident fact, requiring no demonstration, a sound accepted principle.
If anything, be it a matter of belief or practice, is called by an unscriptural name, it is axiomatic that the thing which the name represents, is also unscriptural.

Applying this self-evident truth to the usage of the term pre-millennialism, since the name is unscriptural, then it follows that the belief in it is also unscriptural.
Then this nomenclature must be dropped, or we are not being silent where the Scriptures are silent.

But coming back to the verses we have had under observation, namely Rev. 19:11-16, not only is the language here symbolic, but the description is not in harmony with Christs own account of His personal return. Shall we review a few of his declarations concerning the manner of His return:

And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see power and great glory.

And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. (Mat. 24:30-31)

Again when the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall he sit upon the throne of His glory:

And before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats, (Mat. 25:31-32)

To this may be added Pauls description of Christs return: 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. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1Th. 4:16-17)

Thus we see that (Rev. 9:11-16) does not rightly describe Christs return, as some have interpreted these verses in order to substantiate their teaching that he returns before the millennium.

Shall we now proceed with the unfolding of this chapter before us.

The Dragon Bound for a Thousand Years

Rev. 20:1 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.

There has been considerable discussion as to who this angel is, but the point is of no great consequence. We remember that it was Michael, the archangel, who fought against the dragon and his angels, as recorded in chapter twelve.
There it was a forensic foray; here it is the seizing, binding, and casting of him into prison. Certainly, Michael could be a victor in either contest, but, of course, the name and rank of the angel are not given here.

This angel possesses the key to the bottomless pit, or the abyss. This key is mentioned once before in Revelation in relation to the bottomless pit. It is first referred to in Rev. 9:1. There we read:

I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth and to him (a star is an angel Rev. 1:20) was given the key to the bottomless pit.

The bottomless pit, or abyss is mentioned in (Rev. 9:1; Rev. 9:11; Rev. 11:7; Rev. 17:8; Rev. 20:1; Rev. 20:3). This comes from the greek Abusoos, meaning a very deep place, sometimes translated the Abyss. This is not the same place into which the beast and the false prophet were thrown. That was the lake of fire that burneth with brimstone. After a thousand years the devil is to join them there. Here he is cast into the abyss, or a very deep place, from where the beast ascended to go into perdition. (Rev. 17:8)

And what is the difference between these two places? Briefly, the lake of fire is the final hell; the abyss is a very deep place, a prison in which the dragon and evil spirits are retained prior to the final judgment.
A homely comparison would be like that of a county jail where a criminal is incarcerated prior to his sentence, and the Lake of fire is like the state penitentiary where he is confined for final punishment.
Having a great chain in his hand. Some have been troubled about the nature of that chain. Was it of iron or brass? If so how could such a chain bind a spirit being, like the dragon? The book does not declare it is a chain made of any earthly material. This, we must remember, is a book of symbolism. The chain is the symbol of some binding agent of Divine construction. It is a chain of such a nature that spirits and angels can be bound by it. Jude speaks of such a chain, which is actually binding rebellious angels right now. Hear Jude:

And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath received in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. (Jud. 1:6)

What they are made of or how they are able to bind spirit beings is beyond our knowledge now.

Rev. 20:2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil and satan and bound him a thousand years.

Here we find the arch enemy of Christ and the church called by four names, the same names assigned to him in Rev. 12:9.

And interesting parallel presents itself here. Christ, the rider on the white horse in the nineteenth chapter also had four names, namely, Faithful and True, a name written, that no man knew but Himself, The Word of God and King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
But back to the four names of the Dragon, the enemy of the womans seed. Shall we briefly consider these four names.

First, He called the Dragon. This is the name given him with especial reference to his connection with political and spiritual powers, particularly that of Imperial and papal Rome.

Since these have by this time already been cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, when this evil spirit comes up out of the bottomless pit, or the abyss, at the end of the thousand years, he comes with only two of his former four names, viz. Satan, and the devil.

Second, he is called the old serpent.

The old has reference to his existence since the beginning of man on the earth.
The serpent has reference to his subtlety, his deceiving ways, his deadly poison. It was the serpent that deceived Eve. It is as the serpent that brought in the false doctrine which corrupted the church. This name draws our attention to the subtlety of his temptations.
It does not appear from the symbolism employed here that he ever comes, after his being chained, in the capacity of a serpent. He is the same evil spirit when he is loosed for a short season but he induces God and Magog to compass the camp of the saints, in the role of the devil and Satan.

Third, he is spoken of as the devil. This word means, a slanderer and a malignant liar. To this angel of his nature Christ referred when He said, He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth; when he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own; for he is a liar, and the father of it. (Joh. 8:44)

Evidently, in his deepest malignity he is a liar. As a liar he will deceive the nations at the end of the thousand years.

Fourth, he is called Satan, which means The adversary, the accuser. It really is a Hebrew word transferred and means a hater.

As an accuser he charged God with a lie in the beginning when he said to the woman, ye shall not surely die. in reply to Eves statement God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. (Gen. 3:3)

He was Christs great adversary when he made the attempt to snuff out His life in the murder of the babes of Bethlehem, through the temptation in the wilderness, in the casting of doubt upon Christs deity, even to the struggle to make the gates of Hades prevail against his rising again to prove his Sonship to God.
He has been the adversary to every human soul. As an adversary he appears again in the short season in which he is unchained following the thousand years.
But it was, in all four of these characterizations, that the angel laid hold upon him to bind him a thousand years. Reading further:

Rev. 20:3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled. And after that he was to be loosed for a little season.

He is cast into the abyss, and sealed there, from whence there is no escape, instead of into the lake of fire, the place of no return.
This arch adversary is dealt with in two different stages. First, as described, he is shut up and a seal put upon him for a thousand years. After this period he is loosed for a little season.
Judging by the books-without-end which have been written on the subject of the millennium, it has been quite apparent that men have overcentered their thinking upon that subject, rather than the real theme here, which is the imprisonment of Satan, first in the abyss, and then this final destruction in the lake of fire and brimstone. In the vision of the previous chapter, the last two of the unholy trinity, the beast and the false prophet were disposed of; here the third of those three is dealt with.
Whatever is included in any mention of the thousand years, its mention seems decidedly incidental to the importance of the doom of the dragonthe principle subject of this vision. This passage, the modern millennialist notwithstanding, is concerned chiefly with a prediction of the overthrow of satan. By a series of bold strokes John is presenting to us first the restraining and then the final destruction of the age-old enemy of Christ, who must be destroyed before the City of God can descend out of heaven.
This verse declares that the dragon or satan must remain in the abyss till the thousand years should be fulfilled; and after that he must be loosed a little season.
There is absolutely no reason given here why he must be loosed for this brief time. A reason is assigned why the devil was bound, that he should deceive the nations no more til the thousand years should be fulfilled, but no reason is given why he is loosed after the thousand years.
Of course we might raise the question, why was the devil put into the scheme of things from the very beginning? A brief answer is that when God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let him have dominion, He was launching out on an age-long process. Since God knew right and wrong and had volition, man made in Gods image, must have volition., Therefore, he had to have both good and evil influences play upon him. Thus, the devils place in the scheme of things is to provide man with the opposite influences; that he may be tested and tried and act under his own volition.
If God had placed man in the garden eastward in Eden and left him there millennium after millennium without a tempter, he would have been innocent, but perfect in nothing.

But through overcoming, by a divinely designed plan, he would be made in Gods image and after His likeness.
By the same token perhaps the devil is loosed for a little season. This is a logical reason based upon analogy. It still remains a fact that God has here revealed no reason, so we must not be wise above that which is written.
So we advance to the next verse:

Rev. 20:4-5 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given 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.

We have made a sincere and earnest attempt to move cautiously throughout this wonder book of the Bible, letting the Holy Spirit lead all the way. But as carefully as we have moved thus far we wish to use the utmost caution at this point.
There has been so much written upon this subject of the thousand years that we want to move with extreme care.
This period of a thousand years is not mentioned anywhere else in the entire Bible and here in rapid succession it occurs six times in the space of seven verses.
Six mentions in so short a space would, at first thought, give us the impression of the importance of the thousand years, yet, on the other hand, its importance lies primarily in the interval of the binding and loosing of the dragon or devil. Three, or half of the mentionings, refer directly to the devil, two to the souls who had part in the reigning with Christ and the sixth mention relates itself to the rest of the dead who lived not again until the thousand years were finished.
But the fact that this thousand year period is mentioned six times, is rather significant. Six is short of seven or perfection. Therefore it is not the new heaven and the new earth. It is not the eternal dwelling place of the redeemed.
This fact leads us to another startling truth. Since it is not the eternal home of the children of God, then Christ is not personally present during the thousand years for He was not to return until that place was prepared. Let Christ speak for Himself at this point. He said in his confidential conversation with His apostles at the Passover meal, and the communion which followed it:
In my Fathers house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am there ye may be also.

Shall we carefully scrutinize this first intimation of the day of the coming of Christ. We learn from this that the Fathers House of many mansions is a place already existingare many mansions.

Christ said, I got to prepare a place for you. Paul tells us in Eph. 4:10, He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.

The fathers house is the third heaven, as taught in the Scriptures. Christ ascended above all heavens to prepare a place for us.
Therefore, since this thousand year period, with all its blessings is not the eternal home, then Christ has not at that time returned, because He said, I go to prepare a place for you and if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again to receive you unto myself, that where I am, ye may be also. He never, himself, promised to return to dwell with the saints here personally and visibly, but He did promise to receive them unto Himself to be with Him where He is.

Truly, we must take exceeding care not to read into a passage that which is not there and particularly if it is contrary to what Christ promised He would do.
Judging by the outstanding importance which some have placed upon this passage in Revelation, would it not seem logical that somewhere Christ would say something about it?
If so notable an event as His coming to be here personally during the thousand years was to come to pass at that time does it not seem that Christ would have made some statement concerning it?
In the fourteenth chapter of John He does mention His return but only to receive us unto Himself that where He is we might be also. He is strangely silent here, where human beings have been so vociferous. Would it not be more becoming of the saints to keep silent where He has done so?

Not only was Christ silent about coming at the beginning of the thousand years, but so was John, the divine Revelator, silent. He mentions an angel coming down from heaven and binding Satan for a thousand years, but never a word about Christ also coming at the beginning of the thousand year period.

And not only was John utterly silent on this point, but so, also, were all the other apostles. Of the early church it was said: They continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine (Act. 2:42) but never once was the personal visible return of Christ during the thousand years mentioned as a part of the apostles doctrine. The conclusion is, that such a teaching is not apostolic.

Paul charged Timothy the things which thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. (2Ti. 2:2)

So this teaching of Christs personal return during the thousand years is not included in the same which Paul committed to faithful men. All this evidence is rather heart searching, to say the least.
Now just what did John say? I saw thrones and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them.

Now who are the they? The souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the word of God . . . they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

They had thrones but where is the mention of a throne for Christ to occupy? Where does John say that Christ was here sitting on a throne? He is strangely silent.

Shall we delve a little further into the antecedent of They. Looking ahead in the sixth verse of this twentieth chapter this they occurs again, and of them we read, They shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.

Where have we heard of the redeemed being priests and reigning with Christ before? Why, back in (Rev. 5:9). They (that is the four beasts, or living creatures and the four and twenty elders) sang a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and open the seals thereof, for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed (not us as in the Authorized version) to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people and nation; and has made them (not us as in the common version) unto our God kings and priests, and they shall reign upon the earth.

In this reference the redeemed are called kings and priests; in Rev. 20:6 they are called priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years. Also John here in the twentieth chapter saw them sitting upon thrones in this reigning.

Now, going back to the fifth chapter again where was Christ while these kings and priests were reigning? Hear John: And I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain. (Rev. 5:6)

Here we find that God is sitting on the throne and Christ is at His right hand. Paul said, When He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on hand (Heb. 1:3)

While John saw the souls of the martyrs sitting on thrones and reigning over the earth he mentions no throne for Christ. Why? Because Christ, until His return is at the right hand of God.
Into what a maze of errors we fall when we read into a passage something which is not there! By what authority can we assert that Christ will be on earth, simply because John said these martyrs live and reign with Him for a thousand years. Have we become so earthly minded that we can not conceive of Christ reigning in any place except upon His footstool, the earth?
Did not the Jews make the same mistake in the days of His flesh? They were looking for an earthly kingdom with a temporal throne and the Messiah sitting upon it. Because Christ declared His kingdom was not of this world (not one with a temporal throne, and material appointments) they rejected him.
Has not the Roman Catholic church made the same mistake, placing the pope on an earthly throne, himself crowned with a golden crown and maintaining ambassadors at the courts of temporal kingdoms?
That the Roman Catholic church considers itself a temporal, visible kingdom is further substantiated by their official explanation of the triple crown worn by the pope.
Among his (the popes) insignia are the pallium, which signifies his rank as a Primate, and the tiara or triple crown. In the early centuries the pope wore a simple mitre, like other bishops; but about the ninth century a crown was added to it, to denote the pontiffs temporal power as ruler of the states of the church. Later a second crown was added, and about the year 1365 a thirdsignifying, according to some, the supreme authority of the pope in spiritual things, his jurisdiction over the church considered as a human society, and his dominion as a temporal monarch. According to others, the triple crown typifies his threefold office as teacher, lawgiver and judge. Externals of the Catholic churchpage 9.

How ill becoming, then, for those who renounce the authority of the pope and the claims of the Catholic church to temporal dominion, to fall into the same error of teaching that Christ will sit upon a temporal throne ruling over a visible and temporal kingdom during the thousand year period! Why should the pot call the kettle black?
There have been those who have taught that a literal, temporal kingdom of Israel is to be set up by God at the end. Constant reference is made to the Jews return to Palestine and the setting up of their national government.
While such a return is being witnessed by our eyes, yet how can one, by the greatest stretch of his prophetic imagination see Gods hand in this, when there is no acceptance of Christ by these returning Jews after the flesh? We are witnessing a return as an escape from persecution and earthly desire to restore their national life, but these motives are no different in nature from those of the Jews who fought the wars of the Maccabees with the same objectives in mind, during the four hundred years preceding Christs incarnation.
Christs crucifixion swept aside forever the entire Jewish ceremonial of the temple, the priesthood and the sacrifices. Thus the Scriptures make it utterly impossible for God to ever recognize Israel after the flesh, or to establish the Jewish ritual again. Even if the nation should revive its Old Testament ceremonies, Gods hand will not be in it nor His blessing upon it.
The whole Jewish system was a fore-shadowing of better things to come, and like the old covenant, of which it was a part, is done away forever.
Reformed Judiasm is not looking for a personal Messiah, but teaches that the Messianic hope is the restoration of national life. They still reject Christ as the long-looked-for-Messiah.

The teaching of the restoration of the Jewish nation with its old covenant ceremonies, is an out right denial of the very work Christ accomplished upon the cross.
This whole system of modern day teaching of a certain school of the prophets is based upon the same fallacious and utterly carnal system of interpretation that caused the Jews of Christs day to reject Him as the Messiah.
The only Israel recognized by God since Christs first coming is a spiritual onea kingdom that cometh without observation, a kingdom that is within the heart of the obedient, repentant, baptized believer.
And yet earnest, but nevertheless misguided souls, blithely talk of a temporal kingdom being set up during the thousand year period, with Christ personally and visibly reigning over it!
Thousands of so-called fundamentalists will stand before classes and condemn the Jew of Christs day for rejecting their Messiah because they looked for a temporal ruler reigning over a temporal kingdom. Yet these same folk will piously and fervently pray for and preach that a temporal kingdom will be set up during the thousand years with Christ personally, visibly reigning over it.

Some Insurmountable Objections to a Physical Resurrection

There are some insurmountable objections to physically resurrected saints living on the earth during the thousand years. Such would have bodies like the resurrected body of Christ.
He could instantly make Himself visible or invisible. He could immediately appear in a closed room without use of a door, and just as instantly vanish from sight.
How can advocates of a literal, physical resurrection during the thousand years keep a straight face. Imagine two kinds of beings existing on the earth simultaneously for that length of time!
Christ for a few days did so appear on the earth between His resurrection and His ascension, but for a definite purpose, viz., to provide indubitable proof of His resurrection and to teach His apostles that He was always with them whether visible or invisible.
But a thousand year condition with multitudes of martyrs living with other multitudes still restrained to human limitations raises so many insoluble problems as to render such a teaching impossible, if not ridiculous.
A second objection, and perhaps the greater, to this fallacious teaching is that this text does not so state such a resurrection. John said:

I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, etc. and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

John does not say one word about the bodies of the martyrs being resurrected. He is very particular to call our attention to what he actually saw. He saw the souls of the martyrs living and reigning with Christ.

How different the language here from the account of the resurrection of those who came forth out of their graves at the time Christ died upon the cross. There we read:

And many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of their graves after His resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared unto many. (Mat. 27:52-53)

Here John saw no bodies raised; only the souls of the martyrs, who lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

These had been beheaded and put to death and had never ceased to exist. There is an indication that in some way they now have a different existence than they had before, but it certainly cannot mean that they had come to live, for they had never ceased to live.
Just what is the meaning here? Certainly it refers to spiritual resurrection, not a physical one. The glorious reign of Christ is so manifest at that time because the spirit of the martyrs is resurrected and pervades all who name Christs name and that they are filled with the spirit of the ancient martyrs.
And let us not entertain for a single second that this is a forced interpretation.
When the Bohemian martyr, John Huss was about to die, he prophesied, And I, awakening from among the dead, and rising so to speak, from my grave, shall leap with great joy.
One hundred years later when Luther was engaged in a life-and-death-struggle with the papacy and the Roman Catholic church, Pope Adrian sent a letter to the German Diet meeting in Nuremberg, containing the following words:

The heretics Huss and Jerome are now alive again in the person of Martin Luther.

No one understood such a statement to mean that Huss and Jerome had literally been raised and were dwelling again in their bodies long since returned to the dust.

But shall we turn to a Scriptural parallel. It was prophesied that Elias should come again before the Messiahs first advent. In Mal. 4:5 we read:

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord.

Did this refer to a literal and bodily resurrection of that old Testament prophet. No. Hear none other than Christ interpret this for us.

For this is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.

Verily, I say unto you, among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist; notwithstanding he that is least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than he, for all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. (Mat. 11:10-11; Mat. 11:15)

There is that statement, Let him that hath ears to hear, let him heara characteristic declaration of Christ when he wishes to call our attention pointedly to some truth he wishes us to especially understand.
Elias, or Elijah was not bodily resurrected, but he did come in spirit and power, not in person, but as the fearless, rugged reformer in the wilderness of Jordan.
In speaking of the return of the captive Jews from captivity to their own land, Ezekiel said:
I will open your graves, oh my people, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. (Eze. 37:12-14)

God didnt bodily resurrect these Jews in Babylonian captivity, but the return of the Jews as a nation to their homeland is spoken of as a resurrection.
Oh we are conscious that some claim if the first resurrection is not literal and bodily, then the second cannot be literal either.
But such miss the point. The second resurrection is the calling up of the Spirits of all the dead for judgment. The bodily resurrection is for those who having been judged righteous are to have their bodies raised. Hear Paul:

For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our bodies. (Rom. 8:22-23)

This redemption of our bodies comes after the manifestation of the Sons of God (Rom. 8:19) for which the whole creation waits. And the manifestation of the sons of God is not to be until after the Judgment.

Christ appears at the time of the Judgment and John said that is the time when the sons of God shall be made manifest.

Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as he is. (1Jn. 3:2)

We do not have our bodies raised incorruptible until the last trump:

Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. (1Co. 15:51-53)

This is to occur at the last trump, but there is no trump sounded at the beginning of the thousand year period. Therefore, the first resurrection is not a physical and bodily one.
Oh how much confusion has been brought in by reading into a passage that which it never declared. John simply said, I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus . . . and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

But one writer pens such confusion, others read it and quote it to others and confusion is added to confusion. One pulpiteer proclaims such confusion and his hearers go out and quote that confusion. Thus like a tidal wave, such unscriptural and unsound teaching sweeps far and wide.
Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!
Having considered the insurmountable objections to the bodily resurrection of the martyrs during the thousand years, we turn now to another such objection which pertains itself to Christ visibly and personally reigning over a temporal Kingdom during that time.
We again are reminded that we must not read into this passage more than it says. Earlier in this chapter we have found that John did not say, nor ever hint at Christ sitting on a throne and reigning during the thousand years.

We also proved that Christ remained at Gods right hand while the martyrs as priests reigned on thrones.
Now we take up the third objection. If Christ were reigning on earth personally during the thousand year period we must admit His temporary defeat when the devil is loosed for a short season.

When Christ was upon the earth the first time He was in His body of humiliation. Therefore the devil had power. Christ, Himself, said, The prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me. (Joh. 14:30) Thus Christ freely acknowledged the devils power, calling him the prince of this world.

But Christ is never pictured as coming to this earth again except in His ineffable glory and His unlimited power. Such demonstration of His omnipotence would render the devil incapable of restored power, even for a short season.
Christ gave the devil free reign during the days of His flesh because He came to perfect our redemption through His suffering and humiliation upon the cross. But the devil will be forever powerless when the glorified Christ comes at the judgment time.

Then cometh the end (note: the thousand years period was not the end), when He shall have delivered up the kingdom of God, even the Father; when He shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.

For He must reign, till He hath put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. (1Co. 15:24-26)

In this we learn that when He does return the second time, He shall deliver up the Kingdom to God, He shall have put down all rule and authority and power and He shall have put all enemies under His feet, and finally He shall destroy the last enemy, or death.
None of these things mentioned was done before the thousand year period but rather earthly kingdoms and power and authority and rule and enemies and even death are still existent until after the thousand years.
All this precludes Christ being present and reigning personally during that period because the conditions do not agree with those obtaining at His second coming.
To take any other position requires us to admit that a returned, glorified Christ is powerless before the devil, even for a short season. The devil might and did have power over the Christ in the humiliation of the days of His flesh, but never has he power against a glorified Christ as portrayed at His second coming.
To advocate a return of Christ personally at the beginning of the thousand years and again at the judgment makes him come a second and a third time. Such a position is Scripturally untenable. Hear Paul on this:

So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many: and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation. (Heb. 9:28)

He was offered once at His first coming and He is to appear a second time without sin unto salvation. There will be no third coming.

The Scriptures only recognize one visible return of Christ and that does not take place until after the thousand years. Chapter Rev. 19:11-16 describes a coming in power, the power of the word, but not a visible coming.

This leads us forward to the consideration of what will be happening at His second coming, or appearing.

First: The second coming of Christ and the glorification of Christians will occur at the same time.

When Christ, who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory. (Col. 3:4)

Second: The second coming of Christ and the gathering of the elect from the four winds shall be simultaneous:

And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. And then shall He send His angels, and shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven. (Mar. 13:26-27)

Only the souls of the martyrs were seen by John at the beginning and in duration of the thousand years.

Third: The second coming of Christ and the resurrection of both good and bad, will be at the same time.

Marvel not at this; for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. (Joh. 5:28-29)

Fourth: The second coming of Christ and the resurrection of those who have fallen asleep, or are dead in Christ, and the translation of the living will be at the same time.

For this we say unto you by the Word of the Lord, that we that are alive that are left unto the coming of the Lord, shall in no wise precede them that are fallen asleep. 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; then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1Th. 4:15-17)

Paul here asserts that the living shall not go before the dead to meet the descending Lord. He further declares that Christ Himself will come personally at His second coming. This rules out all possibility of Christs coming being at the beginning of the thousand year period because then John said, I saw an angel come down from heaven. (Rev. 20:1) Himself in 1Th. 4:16, proves that Christ will not come by representative, but in person.

Paul enumerates three sounds accompanying Christs second coming. There will be the shout of Christ, the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God.

How can otherwise sincere and earnest folk confuse this scene of the second coming of Christ with the beginning of the thousand year period? In the description of the beginning of this latter period only an angel, not archangel comes down from heaven and not a word is uttered by him.
There is no trump sounded at the beginning of the thousand years, but the trump of God sounds at the return of Christ after the thousand years, or at the end.
Again how can sincere folk teach two resurrections, one for the righteous (the first resurrection) and one for the wicked (the second resurrection?) Shall we quote John W. McGarvey on this. It is so clear and fine and logical and scriptural and sound that it ought to be incorporated into every book upon this Vital subject:

Of course such a doctrine is abhorrent to the idea of a single hour of judgment, with the saved on the right hand and the lost upon the left. Those who hold this theory appeal to this passage (Rev. 20:4-5) in proof of it, reading it thus: The dead in Christ shall rise first, and the dead out of Christ shall rise second.

But in order to make it read thus they have supplied a correlative clause which is totally foreign to the context, and which crowds out the correlative which Paul himself has given; for shall rise first is correlative with then shall be caught up.

The apostle has been drawing a comparison, not between the righteous dead and the unrighteous dead, but between the dead and the living at the hour of the advent. He began His comparison at verse fifteen and he here completes it by showing that the supposition that the living would precede the dead is so contrary to the facts that, on the contrary, the dead will be raised before any ascension is allowed the living, and then after the resurrection of the dead, the living and the dead shall be caught up together to meet the Lord.

That glorious change, wherein the mortal puts on the immortal, as indicated at 1Co. 15:51-55, will no doubt be simultaneous with the resurrection of the dead.

McGarveys Commentary on I Thessalonianspages 22 and 23.

Fifth: The descent of Christ with clouds at His second coming and the dead and living saints being caught up occur at the same time.

We are not to understand that we are caught up with clouds, but that we are to meet Him who comes in the clouds. Daniel in (Dan. 7:13) said, I saw in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of man, came with the clouds of heaven.

Matthew said in Mat. 24:30, They shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven and with power and great glory.

John said in Rev. 1:7, Behold He cometh with clouds, The Psalmist said, Who maketh the clouds His chariots. (Psa. 104:3)

This coming of Christ with clouds is after the thousand years, because no clouds are mentioned at the ushering in of that period, neither is Christs coming mentioned there; only the descent of an angel.

At this coming we are to be caught up in the air to ever be with the Lord (1Th. 4:17) This corresponds with Christs description of His return:

And if I go to prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. (Joh. 14:3)

At no time is Christ ever said to stand upon the earth at His second coming. Of His first coming Job declared: I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. (Job. 19:25)

But this is not said of Christ at His second coming. Rather:

Sixth: The second coming of Christ and the destruction of the world will be at the same time. How then could He stand upon the earth at His second coming? No wonder we must be caught up to meet Him in the air. And again we see why at His coming He descends to receive us unto Himself.

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. (2Pe. 3:10)

He further declares, Seeing that all these things shall be dissolved, and again, Wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. (2Pe. 3:11-12)

Seventh: The second coming of Christ and the changing of our vile body will occur at the same time.

For our conversation is in heaven; from whence we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ:

Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body. (Php. 3:20-21)

Eighth: At the second coming of Christ then shall be the restitution of all things, and this restitution and His coming are at the same time.

And He shall send Jesus Christ, which was before preached unto you. Whom the heaven must receive until the times of the restitution (Greek-restoration) of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. (Act. 3:20-21)

Ninth: The second coming of Christ and the judgment will be at the same time.

When the Son of man shall come in His glory and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory.

And before Him shall be gathered all nations; and He shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats. (Mat. 25:31-32)

While in Rev. 20:11 the scene of the judgment, nothing is said of the coming of Christ, it is said in Mat. 25:31, as quoted above, that when the Lord comes he shall be seated on the throne of judgment, while in (Rev. 20:11) John sees the throne and the Lord sitting thereon. John there does not describe His coming, as Matthew does, but shows Him already come and engaged in judgment.

Summary

Summing up our investigation we have found:

1.

That the name pre-millennialism is unscriptural and the thing it represents is likewise unscriptural.

2.

That neither Christ nor His apostles ever mentioned such a word or the system of belief the term signifies.

3.

That the Holy Spirit never brought such a teaching to the remembrance of the apostles.

4.

That in the things to come which He was to show the apostles, the Holy Spirit did not mention pre-millennialism.

5.

That Rev. 19:11-16 does not properly describe Christs return as some have interpreted it to be, since this return was to be marked by coming with clouds, the voice of the archangel and the trump of God, and these verses describe no such scene.

6.

That it was an angel who descended at the beginning of the thousand years and not Christ Himself.

7.

That the principle theme here is the binding of Satan and not the thousand years reign of the martyrs with the Christ.

8.

That it was in all four characterizationsthe Dragon, the old serpent, the devil and Satan that the angel laid hold upon him and bound him for a thousand years.

9.

That it is under the characterization of Satan, or accuser and liar that he is loosed for a little season.

10.

That he was cast into the abyss, or deep place, not the lake of fire, for a thousand years.

11.

That the mention of the thousand years period is not the primary theme but is incidental to the real subject under discussion, the binding of Satan.

12.

That those sitting on thrones are the martyrs.

13.

That Christ is not pictured sitting on a throne with the saint but is at the right hand of God.

14.

That these thrones are not said to be upon the earth.

15.

That this thousand year period is mentioned six times, just short of perfection, and Christ only returns when the place of perfection is completed, and then only to receive the righteous unto Himself.

16.

That Christ mentioned His return, not to reign a thousand years on the earth, but to catch us up to be with Him.

17.

That He never once said He, Himself would set foot upon the earth.

18.

That there is no bodily resurrection mentioned here, but only a vision of the souls of the martyrs.

19.

That the body is not to be raised until the consummation of all things.

20.

That the incorruptible body is to be put on at the end of all things and not before the thousand year period.

21.

That there is to be no setting up of a temporal Kingdom on the earth.

22.

That a physical resurrection of the martyrs during the thousand years, would place two kinds of beings on the earth, one held to the limitation of the flesh, the other with a body which could become visible or invisible at will.

23.

That the reigning of the martyrs with Christ is a spiritual rule. But some may ask the question, How can the saints reign with Christ when He is not personally present? The answer is so simple that we marvel men would even ask the question.

Jesus is reigning in the hearts of Christians right now. He does not require a temporal Kingdom, nor an earthly throne to be able to reign in this present age.

The King of England reigns over the great commonwealth of nations under the British flag without being personally present in each nation of that commonwealth. It is not absolutely necessary for an earthly king to be personally present with his subjects in order to reign over them. How much less it is necessary for Christ to have a temporal throne and be personally present in order to reign over the souls of the martyrs!

24.

That the redemption of our bodies comes after the manifestation of the sons of God, which is when God returns at the judgment.

25.

That to have Christ come in His glory at the beginning of the thousand years and have the devil regain his power after that period would be acknowledging Christs defeat.

26.

That Christ is not to come until He has put down all rule, and power, and authority and destroyed the last enemydeath. This only occurs at the judgment time.

27.

That to teach Christ returns before the thousand years and again at the judgment would make Him return twice, once in the beginning of the thousand years, and again at the judgment, whereas He is to return only once.

28.

That the coming of Christ and the glorification of His saints are simultaneous.

29.

That the coming of Christ and the resurrection of the good and bad are simultaneous.

30.

That the second coming of Christ and the raising of the dead and translation of the righteous living are simultaneous.

31.

That Christs second coming and the catching up of the redeemed are simultaneous.

32.

That Christ comes with clouds, and we are to be caught up into the air.

33.

That Christs second coming and the destruction of the world are simultaneous.

34.

That the second coming of Christ and the changing of our vile bodies is simultaneous.

35.

That the second coming of Christ and the restitution of all things are simultaneous.

36.

That the second coming of Christ and the judgment are simultaneous.

37.

That John never said a word about the tabernacle of God being with men during the thousand years. He would have mentioned this if Christ had been here personally; but it is not until after the thousand years and after the judgment that we read, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men.

38.

That if Christs second coming was to be at the beginning of the thousand year period, at which time Satan was to be bound, then it becomes manifest that this binding was in adequate and incomplete.

Rev. 20:1 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison.

Why Satan is loosed, even for this short season is an enigma to the mortal mind, but for some reason, hidden in the secret councils of the Almighty, he is deliberately and by divine design loosed out of his prison.

Rev. 20:8 And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle; the numbers of whom is as the sand of the sea.

We have a gain come to the point where we must move with extreme caution. There are numerous explanations and interpretations many of the final battle of the earth. This battle has been referred to as the battle of Armageddon by some. Others believe the Armageddon to be the battle immediately preceding the thousand years. Still others maintain that the gathering of the kings of the whole world at Har-magedon of the sixth bowl (Rev. 16:14-16), and the kings of the earth and their armies, destroyed with the beast in the vision of Rev. 19:19) may be the same as this gathering of the nations, Gog and Magog for the last struggle. (Rev. 20:7-10)

After careful research and prayerful looking to the Christ for guidance, the best answer seems to be that there is a twin phase to the culminating struggle of the last days.

The First Phase of the Battle

In Jer. 23:3; Jer. 23:5; Jer. 23:8 we read:

And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries wither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds and they shall be fruitful and increase.
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a king shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.
In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is his name whereby he shall be called, The Lord Our Righteousness.

Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more say, the Lord liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land.

This is a gathering from the world-wide dispersion which they have experienced through the centuries. Whereas, they have had no rest for the soul of their feet, they at this gathering dwell in their own land. And the righteous Branch shall not reign over their own land alone, but shall execute judgment and justice in all the earth.

In Jeremiah the thirteenth chapter the first seven verses we have a description of great trial and tribulation through which Israel is to pass before his deliverance from captivity. We have not space to quote it all here but a few words will suffice, directing the reader to read them all in his Bible:

For, lo, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, and I will cause them to return to the land I gave to their fathers and they shall possess it. . . .
Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacobs trouble, but he shall be saved out of it. . . . For I am with thee, saith the Lord, to save thee: though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee.

Christ Himself said, while yet in the days of His flesh: that until the Gentile age comes to an end these promises will not be fulfilled.

And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. (Luk. 21:24)

Thus we see the Jew shall not possess his own land which God gave him until Gentile domination shall come to an end.
But at the termination of the Gentile age the Jew will return to his own land to rebuild it and make it a treasure trove among the nations of earth.
This return is transpiring before our very eyes. During the first World War 19141918, under the Balfour Declaration, England went on record in favor of the setting up, in Palestine, a national home for the Jewish people. On December 9, 1917 General Allenby marched into Jerusalem at the head of his triumphant army. In March 1918 the Jewish flag was unfurled from the tower of David and the General proclaimed a Jewish state.
On May 24, 1920 the League of Nations officially granted to England mandatory power over Palestine.
Then came the second World War and its terrible persecution of the Jews in Germany and the increased migration of the Jew to his homeland.
Finally, on May 14, 1948, the Jewish Nation officially came into being under the designation of Israeli. David Gurion became the first President of the Jewish State.
This fulfilled the prophecy that at the end of the Gentile age the Jew must be in possession of his homeland, because that land is to be the scene of a great world conflict.
The way of the Kings of the east is being prepared. The kings of the earth and of the whole world are being gathered for the battle of that great day of God Almighty.
The chemical wealth of Palestine and the oil field of Iran are drawing the forces of the nations together for this first phase of the conflict.
This battle, of course is not the final one, although it will be terrible in its consequences. After the thousand years have passed will come the last phase of the Battle of Armageddon.
Here in the twentieth chapter of Revelation we learn that the devil is to be loosed for a brief time after the thousand years are completed. Under his deception Gog and Magog take up the final struggle.

Thus we see if the Battle of Armageddon is to be the last battle, it is plainly obvious that it cannot occur until after the thousand years.

The first phase of this battle, which transpires before the thousand years, will occur in the invasion of Gog, the prince of Magog. This angel of the struggle is portrayed in the 37, 38 and 39th chapters of Ezekiel.

The first of those three chapters declares that the Jews will return to Palestine. The second of the three predicts the invasion of the restored homeland by Gog and Magog. The third of the three chapters describes the defeat of the invaders.
As to who these invaders are, we pause to give a brief sketch of identification. Before proceeding with this identification we wish to review the setting. Before this tragedy comes to Israel she must be in her homeland. Ezekiel did prophecy the return of Israel after the Babylonian captivity, but the invasion of the restored land following that captivity was inflicted by the Romans. It was under Roman brutality that Israel was dispersed among the nations. It is from this Roman dispersion that Israel was to be gathered again, not a remnant this time and not from Babylon alone. This last gathering is to be from all nations. After this last mentioned return there shall be a concentration of wealth in Palestine and Gog will invade the land for the frank purpose of taking the spoils. He says, according to Ezekiel, I will go up to take a spoil and to take a prey. Also Ezekiel declares, that when this invasion occurs the people will be living in a defenseless existence. They, evidently, will consider themselves secure because of the covenants the nations of earth have made with them to guarantee them an unmolested occupancy of the land of Palestine.

Now we shall proceed to a consideration of the nations which will constitute the invading forces.
The starting clue is the declaration that the alliance will be headed by Gog, who comes from Magog. Ezekiel declares that Gog is the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. Gog is to be the ruler and Magog is his domain.

The name Gog is a proper name and occurs for the first time in the Bible in 1Ch. 5:4. The name is given to a descendent of Reuben. The time is about sixteen centuries before Christ. The second occurrence is in Eze. 38:2. In this last reference the name is applied to Gog the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. This is a region anciently called Scythia, or Tartary.

This Gog is also the chief prince of Magog. Magog is first mentioned in Gen. 10:1-3 as the second son of Japheth. It reads:

Now these are the generations of the Sons of Noah, Shem, Ham and Japheth: and unto them were sons born after the flood.
The sons of Japheth; Gomer and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal and Meshech and Tiras.

And the sons of Gomer, Ashkenaz, and Riphath, and Togarmah.

So here is the first occurrence of the name Magog. Later the name was applied to his descendants, and still later to their land. The land also came to be called Scythia.
Herodotus, a Greek historian who lived about 484424 B.C., who is called the Father of History, declared that in his day the Scythians were savages, and that Scythia was a region of vast extent, lying north of the Black and Caspian Seas, and also north of the Caucasus mountains.
Josephus, the Jewish historian, who wrote the Jewish Antiquities, a history of his countrymen from the earliest period down to the close of Neros reignsays that Magog represented the Scythians, a race spread over the country now occupied by southern Russia. This region has always been and now is the land of Russia.

But this Gog is represented as being the chief prince of Meshech. Referring to the famous Table of Nations in the 10th chapter of Genesis, we find that Meshech was also a son of Japheth (Gen. 10:2). His descendants came to be called Mosche from which comes the term Muscovites. The name originally referred to those Russians who come from Moscow and its nearby territory. The name Muscovites is still applied to greater Russia. The region was first called Muscovi and finally Moscow. But the identification has always been Russia.

Now we turn to the third link in our lengthening chain of identification. The fifth son of Japheth was Tubal and Ezekiel mentions Gog as the chief prince of Tubal. His ancient descendants are always linked with those of Meshech.

Josephus calls the children of Tubal the Moschoi. The historians of Mesopotamia called these people Tobali and Muski. So Tubal and Meshech are associated together historically. They lived north of the Black and Caspian seas, or Crimea, which again is southern Russia. There was a city in primitive Russia called Tubal.
So Gog of the land of Magog, the chief prince of the land of Meshech and Tubal, refers to Russia and none other. And Gog and Magog are to head the alliance which invades Palestine in the first phase of the battle against the land of Israel.
There remain other nations which Ezekiel associates with Gog and Magog in this first phase of the final battle against Palestine.
There is Gomer to be considered. Referring to ethnology again and the Table of Nations as recorded in the tenth chapter of Genesis, we find that Gomer was the first son of Japheth, which makes him of the same blood as Magog, Tubal and Meshech.
In the Assyrian records we find that Assyria fought in wars against the inhabitants of Gomer. These Assyrian records inform us that Gomer was a barbaric tribe of Aryans which came out of Russia through the Caucasian mountains. They overran Cappadocia and settled in the territory we know today as the Balkans.
The Armenian name for Cappadocia is Gamir, which comes from the ancient word Gomer.
Russia and these people are kindred, being as we say today, of Slavonic blood.

Then Ezekiel (in Eze. 38:6) mentions Togarmah of the North quarters. Gen. 10:3 declares that Togarmah was a son of Gomer and the grandson of Japheth.

Togarmah is now known as Armenia. It is so designated in the Assyrian records. Tacitus, a Roman historian, one of the greatest of all ages, who lived from about 55 A.D. to 120 (?) A.D., also declared that Togarmah was Armenia. Finally all Armenian literature allude to their land and its people as The House of Togarmah. There is also Armenian tradition that they descend from the grandson of Japheth.

In Eze. 38:5 we have mentioned in rapid succession Persia, Ethiopia and Libya. These are also to be allies of Russia in this great battle before the thousand year period.

Persia, the first of the three has a long history reaching back into the dim shadows of antiquity. With Media she formed the second great world empire. Recently she assumed the ancient name of Iran.
In recent years Persia, or Iran, has been the political battleground of Russian and British struggle for control of her fabulous oil fields. These fields contain one-fourth of the proven oil reserves of the world.
The other two nations mentioned by Ezekiel are Libya and Ethiopia. These are the modern names for the ancient countries called in the Hebrew language Phut and Kush.
The Egyptians called Libya by the word Pessent, indicating that region of Africa directly west of Egypt lying on the coast of the Mediterranean.
The Persian record of Maqsh-i-Rusten applies the name Kush to Ethiopia.
In the Table of Nations in the tenth chapter of Genesis, Phut and Kush were the sons of Ham. The people of Kush occupied the country south of Egypt. Later they spread to include the territories of Nubia, Kordofan and Abyssinia. The Egyptians called the land Kas, the Babylonians called it Kusu and the Hebrews called it Kush.
All these countries, Gomer, or the Balkan states; Togarmah, or Armenia; Persia, or Iran; Lybia and the Egyptian countries are to be the allies of Magog, or Russia. This war is to be fought just preceding the thousand years and will bring to an end the times of the Gentiles.

And where is this first battle to be fought? The one reference pertaining to it is in Rev. 16:16 :

And he gathered them together unto a place called in the Hebrew tongue, Armageddon. Armegeddon is the Greek: Har-Mageddon the Hebrew. The word means The Hill of Megiddo. The Hill of Megiddo overlooks the plains of Esdraelon far north of Jerusalem.

So the storm of Ezekiels vision is even now gathering, but at what hour it will break only God knows.
God, who knoweth the end of the matter from the beginning to the end has revealed to us this struggle. And the storm clouds of this great conflict, which Ezekiel saw gathering, will break, even as John saw the kings of the east being gathered to meet the kings of the earth and of all the world.
But after the thousand years there will come the final stage of the Battle of Armageddon, because we read: When the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of prison and Shall go forth to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
But, whereas in the war before the thousand years a battle was to be engaged in by the nations involved, in this last struggle Gog and Magog, and the nations of the earth are to suffer divine punishment.

Rev. 20:9 And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down out of heaven, and devoured them.

One brief sentence tells the whole story: There came down fire out of heaven, and devoured them. No one escapes.
Then follows the record of Satans final destruction. He has before been imprisoned in the abyss, now he is cast into the lake of fire and brimstone. Hear John:

And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. Thus, Political and Papal Rome are joined by the devil. When Christ was on earth, He talked with His disciples about the everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. (Mat. 25:41)

The Great White Throne

We now come to the last scene of the old, wicked and weary creation.

Rev. 20:11 And I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no more place for them.

This fulfills Peters prophecy: The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. (2Pe. 3:10)

We now have come to the august day of divine judgment. Once before John, at the beginning of the second vision in Revelation, the fourth chapter, had beheld a throne and around that first throne were lesser thrones. Seven lamps, representing the seven spirits of God were before that first throne, manifesting the completeness of Gods grace in the dispensation of mercy.
Here there is but one throne. There are no gracious seven lamps burning because the judgments meted out here are to be without grace and mercy.
In connection with the first throne there was joyous singing of redemption. There is no song, no voice of gladness for a word of triumph.
John is impressed by three things concerning this throne:

1.

First, there was the greatness of this throne. This throne was great, not only because it is the final one of this sinful dispensation, but great because of the majesty of the occupant.

2.

The second thing to impress John was the whiteness of that throne. White evidently portrays the glory of the judge.

3.

Immeasurable power and invincible justice sit upon this throne, the Son, the Judge of all the earth. Christ had predicted His final judgment of the world: The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment to the Son. (Joh. 4:22)

John continues:

Rev. 20:12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God: and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

Rev. 20:13 We learn from the next verse that these dead are of every land of earth and sea and even Hades, the realm of departed spirits. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them and they judged every man according to his works.

The complete thought is that all the dead shall be judged.
The books that are opened contain the deeds of all men. The book of Life records the names of the saints. The overcomers are enrolled in the Book of Life:

He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment, and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess His name before my Father and before His angels. (Rev. 3:5)

The lost are not enrolled in this Book of Life. In Rev. 13:8 we read:

All that dwell upon the earth shall worship him (the Dragon or devil), whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. (Rev. 13:8) And again we read, And the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life. (Rev. 17:8)

Christ while in the days of His flesh declared concerning those who obeyed His commandments, that they should not come to judgment, but were passed out of death unto life. (Joh. 5:24)

But to those whose names are not enrolled in the book of life, this is the day when God shall judge the secrets of men.
The judgment of the dead according to those books is a judgment of condemnation.
The Codex Siniaticus, one of the best three manuscripts of the Bible reads:

The sea gave the dead ones in it, and Death and Hades gave the dead ones in them, and they were condemned, every one, according to their deeds. It seems that not one was judged worthy of a place with the blessed dead.

Rev. 20:14-15 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

Thus we see that sentence is followed by immediate execution. When the beast and the false prophet were taken they were cast into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. (Rev. 19:20)

A thousand years later Satan was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone (Rev. 20:10) And into this lake of fire were cast the condemned ones. Some have asked, Is this a lake of literal fire? If it is not, and is but a symbol, we must keep in mind that the substance is always greater than the symbol. Revelation declares this is the eternal fate and destiny of those not written in the Lambs Book of Life.

This is the second death. Some have thought this means extinction, annihilation, but life continued after the first death. Likewise it would indicate continuation of life after the second death. The beast and the false prophet were in that death more than a thousand years and it is implied that they are still alive at the end of that time.
The fact that they shall be tormented day and night forever seems pretty solid proof that this is not a state of extinction or annihilation.

The first death was a killing of the body, but not an extinction of it. The second death must needs be still more terrific and disastrous. There the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. (Mar. 9:44-48)

The torment is to be eternal, or literally to the ages of the ages.

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

THE BINDING OF SATAN.

(1) And I saw an angel come down . . .Rather, And I saw an angel descending out of the heaven, having the key of the abyss, and a great chain on (not merely in his hand, but hanging from it as it would do when on) his hand. It is needless to settle who is represented by this angel. It is enough that in the vision he manifests by the key and the chain which he carries that there is power in Him, who has the keys of death and of Hades (Rev. 1:18), to bind, as He has death-wounded, him that had the power of death. The bottomless pit is the abyss, as we have had elsewhere (Rev. 9:1; Rev. 11:7; and Rev. 17:8. Comp. Luk. 8:31); it is figuratively the abode of the devil and his associate angels (Mat. 25:41).

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

Chapter 20

THE THOUSAND YEAR REIGN OF CHRIST AND THE SAINTS ( Rev 20:1-15 )

Since the great importance of this chapter is that it is what might be called the foundation document of Millennarianism or Chiliasm, it will be better to read it as a whole before we deal with it in detail.

20:1-15 1 And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven with the key of the abyss, and with a great chain in his hand. 2 And he laid hold of the dragon, the ancient serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a 3 thousand years, and cast him into the abyss, and locked him in, and set a seal over him, that he might no longer deceive the nations, until the thousand years were completed. After that he must be set free for a little time. 4 And I saw thrones, and those who had received the privilege of judgment sat upon them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their witness to Jesus, and for the sake of the word of God, and such as had not worshipped the beast nor his image, and who had not received the mark upon their forehead, and upon their hand. And they came to life again, and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. 5 The rest of the dead did not come to life again until the thousand years were completed. This is the 6 first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who has a share in the first resurrection. Over these 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. 7 And whenever the thousand years shall have been completed, Satan will be loosed from his prison, and 8 he will come forth to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth, that is, Gog and Magog, to assemble them for war; and their number will be as the sand of the sea. 9 And they came up over the broad plain of the earth, and they encircled the camp of God’s dedicated ones, and the beloved city; and fire came down from 10 heaven and devoured them; and the devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where both the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tortured day and night for ever and ever. 11 And I saw a great white throne and him who sat upon it. Earth and the sky fled from his presence, 12 and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne; and books were opened. And another book was opened, the Book of Life; and the dead were judged by that which was written in these books, according to their deeds. 13 And the sea rendered up the dead in it, and Death 14 and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the 15 second death, the lake of fire; and everyone who was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.

Millennium means a period of one thousand years; and chiliasm is derived from the Greek chilias ( G5505) , a thousand. To put it briefly, the commonest form of Millennarianism teaches that for a thousand years before the end Christ will reign upon this earth in a kingdom of his saints; and after that will come the final struggle, the general resurrection, the last judgment and the final consummation.

We note two general facts: First, this was a very common belief in the early church and it still has its adherents. Second, this is the only passage in the New Testament in which it is clearly taught.

The picture is that first of all the Devil will be bound in the abyss for a thousand years. Then those who have been martyred for Christ, although the rest of mankind, even the Christians among them who did not suffer martyrdom, will not be resurrected. There will then be a period of a thousand years in which Christ and his saints will reign. After that for a brief time the Devil will be released. There will follow a final struggle and the general resurrection of all men. The devil will be finally defeated and cast into the lake of fire; his supporters will be burned up with fire from heaven; those whose names are in the Book of Life will enter into blessedness, but those whose names are not in the Book of Life will also be cast into the lake of fire.

This doctrine does not occur anywhere else in the New Testament but it was prevalent throughout the early church especially among those who had received their Christianity from Jewish sources. Here is our key. The origin of this doctrine is not specifically Christian but is to be found in certain Jewish beliefs about the Messianic age which were common in the time after 100 B.C.

Jewish Messianic beliefs were never an unvarying system. They varied from time to time and from thinker to thinker. The basis was that the Messiah would come and establish upon earth the new age, in which the Jewish nation would be supreme.

In the earlier times the general belief was that the kingdom so established would last for ever. God would set up a kingdom which would never be destroyed; it would break in pieces the other kingdoms, but it would stand for ever ( Dan 2:44). It was to be an everlasting dominion ( Dan 7:14, Dan 7:27).

From 100 B.C. onwards there came a change. It was felt that this world was so incurably evil that within it the Kingdom of God could never finally come; and so there emerged the conception that the Messiah would have a limited reign and that after his reign the final consummation would come. The Apocalypse of Baruch foresees the defeat of the forces of evil; then the principate of the Messiah will stand for ever, until this world of corruption is at an end (Baruch 40:3). One section of Enoch sees history as a series of weeks. There are seven weeks of past history. The eighth is the week of the righteous, when a sword is given to the righteous and sinners are delivered into their hands, and the house of God is built. In the ninth week the evil are written down for destruction, and righteousness will flourish. In the tenth week comes judgment; and only then comes the eternal time of goodness and of God (Enoch 93:3-10).

There was much rabbinic discussion of how long the Messianic age would last before the final consummation arrived. Some said 40, some 100, some 600, some 1,000, some 2,000, some 7,000 years.

We look particularly at two answers. 2 Esdras is very definite. God is represented as saying: “My Son the Messiah shall be revealed, together with those who are with him, and shall rejoice the survivors for four hundred years. And it shall be, after these years, that my Son the Messiah shall die, and all in whom there is human breath. Then shall the world be turned into the primaeval silence seven days, like as at the first beginnings, so that no man is left.” And then after that the new age comes ( 2Est 7:28-29). This passage is unique in foretelling, not only a limited reign of the Messiah, but the Messiah’s death. The period of four hundred years was arrived at by setting side by side two passages from the Old Testament. In Gen 15:13 God tells Abraham that the period of the affliction of Israel will last for four hundred years. In Psa 90:15 the prayer is: “Make us glad as many days as thou hast afflicted us, and as many years as we have seen evil.” It was, therefore, held that the period of bliss, like the period of affliction, would last for 400 years.

More commonly it was held that the age of the world would correspond to the time taken for its creation and that the time of creation was 6,000 years. “A thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday” ( Psa 90:4). “One day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” ( 2Pe 3:8). Each day of creation was said to be 1,000 years. It was, therefore, held that the Messiah would come in the sixth thousand of the years; and the seventh thousand, the equivalent of the Sabbath rest in the creation story, would be the reign of the Messiah.

Although the reign of the Messiah was to be the reign of righteousness, it was often conceived of in terms of material blessings. “The earth also shall yield its fruit ten thousand-fold, and on each vine there shall be a thousand branches, and each branch shall produce a thousand clusters, and each cluster shall produce a thousand grapes, and each grape a cor (120 gallons) of wine” (Baruch 29:5, 6) Bar_6:1-73 ). There will be no more disease, no more untimely death; the beasts will be friendly with men; and women will have no pain in childbirth (2Baruch 73).

Here, then, we have the background of the idea of the Millennium. Already the Jews had come to think of a limited reign of the Messiah, which would be a time of the triumph of righteousness, and of the greatest spiritual and material blessings.

On the basis of this passage of the Revelation Millennarianism or Chiliasm was very widespread within the early Church, although it was never universal.

For Justin Martyr it was an essential part of orthodox belief, although he agreed that there were good Christians who did not accept it. “I and others, who are right-minded Christians at all points, are assured that there will be a resurrection of the dead, and a thousand years in Jerusalem, which will then be built adorned and enlarged as the prophets Ezekiel and Isaiah and others declare” (Dialogue with Trypho 80). Irenaeus also (Against Heresies 5: 32) firmly held to the belief in a Millennium upon earth. One of his reasons was the conviction that, since the saints and the martyrs had suffered upon earth, it was only just that upon earth they should reap the rewards of their fidelity. Tertullian also insisted upon the coming of the Millennium. Papias, the second century collector of so much material upon the Gospels, insisted that Jesus taught the doctrine of the Millennium, and he hands down as the words of Jesus a passage which foretells the wondrous fertility of the earth which is to come: “The days will come in which vines shall grow each having ten thousand shoots, and on each shoot ten thousand branches, and on each branch again ten thousand twigs, and on each twig ten thousand clusters, and on each cluster ten thousand grapes, and each grape when pressed shall yield five and twenty measures of wine. And when any of the saints shall have taken hold of one of their clusters, another shall cry, I am a better cluster; take me, bless the Lord through me. Likewise also a grain of wheat shall produce ten thousand heads, and every head shall have ten thousand grains, and every grain ten thousand pounds of fine flour, bright and clean, and the other fruits, seeds and the grass, shall produce in similar proportions, and all the animals, using these fruits which are products of the soil, shall become in their turn peaceable and harmonious, obedient to man in all subjection.” Papias gives this passage as an actual saying of Jesus, but it can be seen that it is very close to the passage of 2Baruch which we have already quoted.

We have already said that, although many in the early church accepted the belief in the Millennium as a part of orthodoxy, many did not. Eusebius almost contemptuously dismisses Papias’ report. “I suppose he got those ideas,” he says, “through a misunderstanding of the apostolic records, not perceiving that the things said by them were said mystically in figures. For he seems to have been of very limited understanding” (Eusebius: The Ecclesiastical History 3: 38).

One of the things which brought discredit upon Millennarianism was the fact that it undoubtedly lent itself to a materialistic interpretation in which it offered physical as much as spiritual pleasures. Eusebius tells how the great scholar Dionysius had in Egypt to deal with a certain much-respected bishop called Nepos who taught “a millennium of bodily luxury upon this earth” (The Ecclesiastical History 7: 24). Cerinthus, a heretic, deliberately taught a millennium of “delights of the belly and sexual passion, eating and drinking and marrying” (Eusebius: The Ecclesiastical History 3: 28). Jerome spoke contemptuously of “these half-Jews who look for a Jerusalem of gold and precious stones from heaven, and a future kingdom of a thousand years, in which all nations shall serve Israel” (Commentary on Isa 60:1).

Origen rebuked those who looked for bodily pleasure in the Millennium. The saints will eat, but it will be the bread of life; they will drink, but it will be the cup of wisdom (De Principiis 2. 11. 2-3). It was Augustine, however, who, we may almost say, dealt Millennarianism its death blow. At one time he himself had been a Millennarian, although it was always spiritual blessings for which he longed. H. B. Swete summarizes Augustine’s position: “He had learned to see in the captivity of Satan nothing else than the binding of the strong man by the stronger than he which the Lord had foretold ( Mar 3:27; Luk 11:22); in the thousand years, the whole interval between the first Advent and the last conflict; in the reign of the saints, the entire course of the kingdom of heaven; in the judgment given to them, the binding and loosing of sinners; in the first resurrection, the spiritual share in the Resurrection of Christ which belongs to the baptised” (Augustine: The City of God 20: 7). Augustine spiritualized the whole idea of the Millennium.

Millennarianism is by no means extinct within the Church; but it has never been the universally accepted belief of the Church, this is the only passage in the New Testament which unequivocally teaches it, its whole background is Jewish and not Christian, and the literal interpretation of it has always tended to run into danger and excess. It is a doctrine which has long since been left behind by the main stream of Christian thought and which now belongs to the eccentricities of Christian belief.

The Chaining Of Satan ( Rev 20:1-3)

The abyss was a vast subterranean cavern beneath the earth, sometimes the place where all the dead went, sometimes the place where special sinners were kept awaiting punishment. It was reached by a chasm reaching down into the earth and this the angel locks in order to keep the Devil in the abyss.

It was the abyss which the devils feared most of all. In the story of the Gerasene demoniac the request of the devils was that Jesus would not command them to leave the man and to go out into the deep, that is, the abyss ( Luk 8:31).

The seal is set on the chasm to ensure the safe-keeping of the prisoner, just as the seal was set on the tomb of Jesus to make sure that he would not escape ( Mat 27:66).

The Devil is to be kept in the abyss for a period of a thousand years. Even the way in which the word thousand is used in Scripture warns us against taking this literally. Psa 50:10 says that the cattle on a thousand hills belong to God; and Job 9:3 says that a man cannot answer God once in a thousand times. Thousand is simply used to describe a very large number.

At the end of the period the Devil is to be let loose for a little time. H. B. Swete suggests that the reason for the final loosing of the Devil is this. In a period of peace and righteousness, in a time when the opposition, so to speak, did not exist, it might easily happen that people came to take their faith unthinkingly. The loosing of the Devil meant a testing-time for Christians, and there are times when a testing-time is essential, if the reality of the faith is to be preserved.

The Privilege Of Judgment ( Rev 20:4-5)

In the first resurrection only those who have died and suffered for the faith are to be raised from the dead. The general resurrection is not to take place until after the thousand year reign of Christ upon earth. There is special privilege for those who have shown special loyalty to Christ.

Those who are to enjoy this privilege belong to two classes. First, there are those who have been martyred for their loyalty to Christ. The word used for the way in which they were killed means to behead with an axe, and denotes the most cruel death. Second, there are those who have not worshipped the beast and have not received his mark on their hand or on their forehead. H. B. Swete identifies these, as those who, although they were not actually martyred, willingly bore suffering, reproach, imprisonment, loss of goods, disruption of their homes and personal relationships for the sake of Christ.

In the ancient Church in the days of persecution two terms were used. Martyrs were those who actually died for their faith; confessors were those who suffered everything short of death for their loyalty to Christ. Both he who dies for Christ and he who lives for Christ will receive his reward.

Those who have been loyal to Christ are to receive the privilege of judgment. This is an idea which occurs more than once in the New Testament. Jesus is represented as saying that, when he returns to sit on the throne of his glory, his twelve apostles will sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel ( Mat 19:28). Paul reminds the litigious Corinthians that the destiny of the saints is to judge the world ( 1Co 6:2). Again we do not need to take this literally. The idea symbolized is that the world to come will redress the balance of this one. In this world the Christian may be a man under the judgment of men; in the world to come the parts will be reversed and those who thought they were the judges will be the judged.

The Privileges Of The Witnesses Of Christ ( Rev 20:6)

(i) For them death has been utterly vanquished. The second death has no power over them. Physical death for them is not a thing to be feared, for it is the gateway to life everlasting.

(ii) They are to be the priests of God and of Christ. The Latin for priest is pontifex, which means a bridge-builder. The priest is the builder of a bridge between God and man; and he, as the Jews saw it, is the one man with the right of direct access into the presence of God. Those who have been loyal to Jesus Christ have the right of free entry into the presence of God; and they have the privilege of introducing others to Jesus Christ.

(iii) They are to reign with Christ. In Christ even the most ordinary man becomes a king.

The Final Struggle ( Rev 20:7-10)

At the end of the thousand years the Devil is to be loosed, but he has learned no lesson; he begins where he has left off. He will assemble the nations for the final attack on God.

A final attack on Jerusalem by the hostile nations is one of the standard pictures of the last times in Jewish thought. We find it especially in Dan 11:1-45 and in Zec 14:1-11. The Sibylline Orders (3: 663-672) tell how the kings of the nations shall throw themselves against the land in troops, only to be ultimately destroyed by God.

But here we come on a picture which etched itself deeply, if mysteriously, on Jewish thought, the picture of Gog and Magog. We find it first in Eze 38:1-23; Eze 39:1-29. There Gog of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and of Tubal, is to launch the great attack upon Israel and is to be in the end utterly destroyed. It may be that originally Gog was connected with the Scythians whose invasions–all men feared.

As time went on, in Jewish thought Gog ( H1463; G1136) and Magog ( H4031; G3098) came to stand for everything that is against God. The rabbis taught that Gog and Magog would assemble themselves and their forces against Jerusalem, and would fall by the hand of the Messiah.

The hostile armies under the Devil’s leadership come up against the camp of God’s people and against the beloved city, that is, Jerusalem; the hosts are consumed with fire from heaven, the Devil is cast into the lake of fire and brimstone to share the fate of the beast and of the false prophet, and the triumph of God is complete.

(1) The Final Judgment ( Rev 20:11-15)

Now comes the final judgment. God, the Judge, is on his great white throne which symbolizes his unapproachable purity.

It may be that some will find a problem here. The regular picture of the New Testament is that Jesus Christ is judge. Joh 5:22 represents Jesus as saying: “The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son.” In the Parable of the Sheep and Goats it is the glorified Christ who is the judge ( Mat 25:31-46). In Paul’s speech at Athens it is said that God has appointed a day in which he will judge the world by Jesus ( Act 17:31). In 2Ti 4:1 Jesus is the one who is about to judge the living and the dead.

There are two answers to this apparent difficulty.

First, the unity of the Father and the Son is such that there is no difficulty in ascribing the action of the one to the other. That is in fact what Paul does. In Rom 14:10 he writes: “We shall all stand before the judgment seat of God.” But in 2Co 5:10 he writes: “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.”

Second, it may be that the real reason why God is the judge in John’s Revelation is that the whole background of the book is Jewish; to a Jew, even when he became a Christian, God stood unique; and it would seem natural to him that God should be judge.

As John tells the story, the judgment begins with the passing away of this present world; earth and sky flee from his presence. John is thinking in pictures which are very familiar in the Old Testament. God laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of his hands. None the less it is still true that “they will perish … they will all wear out like a garment; thou changest them like raiment, and they pass away” ( Psa 102:25-27). “The heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment” ( Isa 51:6). “Heaven and earth will pass away” ( Mar 13:31). “The heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up” ( 2Pe 3:10). The new man in Christ must have a new world in Christ.

(2) The Final Judgment ( Rev 20:11-15 Continued)

Now follows the judgment of mankind.

It is the judgment of great and small. There is none so great as to escape the judgment of God, and none so unimportant as to fail to win his vindication.

Two kinds of book are mentioned. The first contains the records of the deeds of men. This is a common idea in Scripture. “The court sat in judgment,” says Daniel, “and the books were opened” ( Dan 7:10). In Enoch the sealed books are opened before the Lord of the sheep (Enoch 90:20). The Apocalypse of Baruch foretells the day when “the books shall be opened in which are written the sins of all those who have sinned, and again also the treasuries in which the righteousness of all those who have been righteous in creation is gathered” (Baruch 24:1). When the present age passes away, the books will be opened before the face of the firmament, and all shall see together (4 Ezr 6:20).

The idea is simply that a record of all men’s deeds is kept by God. The symbolism is that all through life we are writing our own destiny; it is not so much that God judges a man as that a man writes his own judgment.

The second book is the Book of Life. This, too, occurs often in Scripture. Moses is willing to be blotted out of the Book of Life if it will save the people ( Exo 32:32). It is the prayer of the Psalmist that the wicked will be blotted out of the Book of the Living and not written with the righteous ( Psa 69:28). Isaiah speaks of those who are written among the living ( Isa 4:3). Paul speaks of his fellow-labourers whose names are in the Book of Life ( Php_4:3 ). It is the promise of the Risen Christ to the Church at Sardis that the name of him who overcomes will not be blotted out of the Book of Life ( Rev 3:5). Those whose names are not written in the Book of Life are given over to destruction ( Rev 13:8). The idea behind this is that every ruler had a roll-book of living citizens under his control; and, of course, when a man died, his name was removed from the roll. Those whose names are in the Book of Life are those who are living, active citizens of the kingdom of God.

At the time of judgment it is said that the sea will give up its dead. The point is twofold. First, in the ancient world burial was all important; if a man did not obtain burial, his spirit would wander, homeless, neither in earth nor in heaven. And, of course, those who died at sea could never be buried. John means that even such as these will appear before the judgment seat of God. Second, H. B. Swete puts the matter in a more general form. “The accidents of death,” he says, “will not prevent any from appearing before the judge.” No matter how a man dies, he will not escape his punishment nor lose his reward.

Finally, Death and Hades are thrown into the lake of fire. As H. B. Swete puts it, these voracious monsters who have themselves devoured so many are in the end themselves destroyed. In the judgment those who are not in the Book of Life are condemned to the lake of fire with the Devil, their master, but for those whose names are in the Book of Life, death is for ever vanquished.

-Barclay’s Daily Study Bible (NT)

Fuente: Barclay Daily Study Bible

Capture of the real antichrist Satan, and his thousand year imprisonment, Rev 20:1-3.

1. And See last note. Of course, no intelligent reader imagines that an angel with real metallic chain lays corporeal hand upon Satan’s body. The angel is the going forth of divine power energizing the moral and spiritual forces repressive of sin and Satan.

Chain The decisive check upon infernal agencies over man.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

IV. THE SEVEN TRUMPETS, Rev 7:1 to Rev 20:10.

Of the trumpets, the first four are mundane, or earthly; each of the four blasts draws down a judgment upon some creational point, as earth, sea, fountains and rivers; firmamental luminaries. It is the sins of men that draw down these bolts of wrath, rendering every point of creation hostile to our peace. “Cursed is the ground for thy sake,” (Gen 3:17,) is the key-note. This sad status of humanity has existed through all past ages; but it is here represented to form a base from which the history of the renovation commences.

The first four the earthly trumpets are each brief as well as terrible; the spiritual, the fifth and sixth, expand into wider dimensions and rise to more spiritual interests; while the seventh trumpet rolls forth its series of events, through all the future scenes of retribution and redemption to the judgment.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

III. THIRD AND LAST OVERTHROW OF THE ARMIES OF ANTICHRIST, Rev 19:11 to Rev 20:3.

This last sublime victory is now to be achieved. The capital of antichrist was taken, 14-16; his harlot was destroyed, xvii; and now comes the final destruction of all the forces and champions opposed to truth and righteousness, preparatory to the introduction of the universal reign of holy peace. That these three great successive phases of historical progress evolve through centuries, is required by the whole structure of the apocalypse, based, as that is, on the imageries of Daniel’s visions. The three phases succeed in the order given, yet, no doubt, each preceding phase laps into its successor. This last ”the great moral battle of the world” doubtless in a measure includes the preceding two, and carries the whole process of advancing knowledge, truth, and righteousness to the millennial culmination.

On this important passage we may note, 1. We do not agree with Alford in identifying the rider of the white horse here with that in Rev 6:2. But it conclusively follows, that if that is symbolical, so is this. There is no more reason for supposing the personage is corporeally “present” in one case than in the other. 2. Nor is there any more reason for supposing a corporeal riding out of heaven on a literal live horse here, than to suppose a corporeal dragon in chap. 12, flung by Michael from the sky to the ground. That downfall is, no doubt, allusively drawn from the pre-terrene fall of the angels; just as this is drawn allusively from the real post-terrene second advent yet to come. The dragon is a real person, namely, Satan; yet this, his phenomenal apparition, is a symbol; just so the Messiah is a real person, while this, his phenomenal presentation, is a symbol. And so fallacious is Gebhardt’s argument, that the man-child’s ascension was real, and so, therefore, this descent of the same must be literal. The man-child was real, but his infantile snatching up, in chapter 12, was symbolical, based on his real ascension. See notes chap. 12. 3. The phantasy that this is a picture of Christ’s real coming to “judge the quick and dead,” is contradicted on the entire face of the passage, and by every detail of its particulars. It is not a judicial scene, but a military. It is not a court, but a battle. The leader is not here a judge in the judiciary sense, but a general and a conqueror. Can it be for one moment seriously believed that there will be literal horses in heaven, on which Christ and his saints will sit astride, and ride down to the earth? 4. What confirms this view is, that it is the last battle in a serial emblematic war; the last third of a regular symbolic campaign. The enemy’s capital has been captured, his harlot has been exposed and destroyed. But the chief leaders the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet with their armies, are yet in the field. This is simply a clear narrative, under due symbol guise, of their overthrow, arrest, and consignment to durance vile. 5. What settles this view finally and conclusively is, the fact that at the close of the battle and the imprisonment of the last great rebel, (Rev 20:3-6,) we have the trophies of victory and the repose and full enjoyment of conquest. The world is cleared of rebels and devils; the imparadised martyr “souls” are enthroned with Christ in exaltation, and rule over its broad area; and for a symbolic thousand years not a traitor dares lift a warlike head. When, at the close of that period, the ancient rebel re-rebels, the world’s status is fixed forever.

The grand judicature takes place, and the portals of eternity are opened. 6. This picture is, then, symbolical. The horses and the riders on horseback are the impersonations of the cause, and of the champions of truth, righteousness, and human happiness, headed by Him who is the Word of God, the Truth itself. His enemies are the agencies of evil, the obstructive forces to the Gospel, to human progress, to universal Christianization, peace, and civilization. But the leader in the advance is divine; heavenly auxiliaries form his retinue; the enemies are paralyzed, and victory crowns the day. If any one doubts whether this battle of right against wrong, of the true against the false, of Christ against antichrist, is really in hopeful progress, let him consider a few facts.

Three or four centuries ago this our American continent was covered with the howling forests, inhabited by savage pagans, with their horrid Satanic rites and diabolical cruelties. It is now being overspread with churches, schools, and universities. At that time the sea was navigated by a feeble craft, and liable to be overrun with piracies. Europe was wrapped in ignorance, the press was uninvented, Christendom was ruled by the absolute pope, and yet the Turks were threatening Vienna, with a great possibility of establishing Mohammedanism as the religion of the western world. Asia was ruled by pagan or Mohammedan, and locked against all Christian missions, had there been life enough in Christianity to send one.

Africa was an unexplored pagan blackness. And thus two or three centuries ago the four quarters of the globe were covered with a solid midnight, save a few rays of twilight dawn in Europe. Picture as great a change for the better through our next three centuries, and say if the heavenly battle is not in progress! Thus is our Apocalypse the book of hope and triumph.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘And I saw an angel coming down out of Heaven having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand, and he laid hold on the monster, the old Serpent who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, that he should deceive the nations no more until the thousand years were finished. And after this he must be loosed for a little time.’

In this vision John is carried back in time to the period of the binding of Satan (Mar 3:27; Col 2:15). The effect of Christ’s presence on earth and the power He endowed on His disciples through His Spirit resulted in the restricting of Satan and his fall from heaven (Luk 10:18). Now the angel coming down from Heaven with the key of the Abyss is to act as his gaoler. See for the end of this situation Rev 9:1-11. There it is clear that there has been a period when the powers of evil have been kept under restraint in the Abyss. This is in contrast with the star that fell who was also later given the key of the Abyss (Rev 9:2). The latter was to open the Abyss. This angel in Revelation 20 is thus acting prior to that and utilising the Abyss as a prison in which to hold Satan and his minions. Satan’s total grip on the world was therefore broken

The later opening of the Abyss is a theme of Revelation and is described a number of times. It is described in Rev 9:2 where the star fallen from heaven to earth is given the key to open the Abyss, in which is the king of the Abyss, called Abaddon and Apollyon. A powerful host of evil spirits is released , including their king. It is mentioned in Rev 17:8 where the red beast comes out of the Abyss (for a short while) and after a while goes into Destruction, compare Rev 11:7 where he is described as the beast who comes up out of the Abyss. As Satan is here described as being chained in the Abyss (Rev 20:3), and after his loosing also goes into Destruction (Rev 20:10) it is natural to see these events of the Beast and Satan ‘going into Destruction’ as parallel.

The Binding of Angels and Satan in the Abyss.

The Abyss is both a place where the dead go (Rom 10:7) and also a place for the imprisonment and punishment of spiritual beings (Luk 8:31). It is the unseen world other than Heaven.

We learn in Jude that “the angels who kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness until the judgment of the great day” (Jud 1:6). This is used as an example for false teachers, who misuse the truth to their own condemnation, showing that those who turn from the truth face severe judgment. It is clear that the chaining of angels who did not keep ‘their first estate’ in everlasting chains is in the past for Jude, and the context, coming before Sodom and Gomorrah, suggests it refers to Gen 6:1-4.

This is specifically confirmed by Peter, for in 2Pe 2:4 we read, “God spared not the angels who sinned, but cast them down to Tartarus (a place of torment), and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment”, and he refers this to the time of Noah. Thus these angels were certainly chained in the abyss in pre-history because they crossed the forbidden boundary between the natural and the supernatural.

Satan also is later described by Jesus Christ Himself as being bound so that his goods can be spoiled. Indeed Jesus claimed that He was here as ‘the stronger than he’ and that it would be necessary for Him to ‘bind the strong man’ so that He could despoil his house (Mat 12:29; Mar 3:27; Luk 11:22). A Greater than Satan was here. When His disciples returned from their ministry amazed that they had been able to cast out evil spirits and joyously announcing to Him their triumph, He replied, “I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven” (Luk 10:18). In other words Satan was a defeated foe. He had seen Satan defeated at the hands of His Apostles. His statement indicated that, as the disciples had discovered, Satan was now disempowered. His total grip on the world was broken. In other words he was bound.

The heaven from which Satan ‘fell’ was not the Heaven of Heavens, but the spiritual sphere in which he was active. Late in His life Jesus could declare, “now is the judgment of this world, now shall the prince of this world be cast out” (Joh 12:31). In other words the whole life and work of Jesus resulted in a continual binding and casting out of Satan, finalising in His victory on the cross. As Paul says in Col 2:15, “having spoiled principalities and powers (in the cross), he led them in a show of triumph”. His work on the cross resulted in the final spoiling and captivity of Satan and his minions.

This defeat of Satan is also described in Rev 12:7-9 (which see). Satan is defeated, and having been defeated is cast down ‘to the earth’, the emphasis being on the fact that he is no longer in a position to directly approach God and accuse His people. It is shortly after this point possibly that the angel, under instructions, chains the defeated foe in the Abyss which is always described as being under the earth, restricting his activities. All this suggests that the opening of the abyss to receive Satan and his angels is to be seen as a past event, an event followed by his later release in the end days (Rev 11:1-9).

One objection raised to this is that it fails to explain how Satan, if he is bound in the abyss, can be so active on earth. That Satan is active can be seen quite clearly in 1Ch 21:1; Job 1:6 to Job 2:7; Psa 109:6; Zec 3:1-2; Mat 4:1-10 and parallels; Mat 12:25-29 and parallels; Mar 4:15; Luk 13:16; Luk 22:3; Luk 22:31; Act 5:3; Act 26:18; Rom 16:20; 1Co 5:5 ; 1Co 7:5; 2Co 2:11; 1Th 2:18 ; 2Th 2:9; 1Ti 1:20 ; 1Ti 5:15; 1Pe 5:8; Rev 2:13; Rev 2:24. We have deliberately included all the main apposite passages at the risk of overemphasis so as not to weaken the case being argued against.

In these passages we learn that Satan leads men astray, accuses them before God, tests them out, walks around like a lion seeking to devour men, is allowed limited powers against them, holds sway over unbelievers, hinders Christian activities and performs ‘lying wonders’. If he can act so, it may be asked, how can he then have been bound? As someone has sarcastically put it, ‘if he was bound, it was with a remarkably long chain’.

But this is to ignore the symbolism behind all this. The point is that Satan has been defeated, he has been chained in the abyss so that he cannot deceive the nations any more, and it is from there that he carries out his present activity, although in the end for a short time being allowed his final personal go at the world.

In regard to this we must consider:

a) That Satan is so powerful that even Michael the Archangel is wary of him (consider Jud 1:9). This being so why would he be as restrained as he is if he is not bound in some way? His powers have clearly been restricted. That is why Paul can speak of ‘that which restrains’ (2Th 2:6) until he – the man of sin – is revealed in his season. He speaks of ‘one who restrains until he be taken out of the way, and then shall be revealed the lawless one’ (2Th 2:7). The ‘restrainer’ may well have in mind the angel of the abyss, and the restraint the heavenly ‘chain’.

b) How literally are we to take the descriptions in the verses which teach about Satan? The answer is that we must remember that Satan is a spirit-being who can only operate within the restrictions put on him by God. The truth is that the Bible has to teach heavenly things in earthly language. We must be careful not to over-press such language.

Taking the second consideration first. Satan comes before God to accuse both Job (Job 1:6 to Job 2:8) and Joshua the High Priest (Zec 3:1-2). But does this really mean that Satan has physical ready access to God in a physical Heavenly court, and can approach His glory and holiness without fear?

The fact is that this is simply a picture in earthly language, picturing spiritual truth in terms of the way in which great kings called men before them for judgment or praise. But God is not limited to a physical place in space and time, and nor for that matter is Satan. The aim of the picture is to express God’s overall sovereignty and His awareness of all that happens, and especially of Satanic claims. It brings out the accountability of Satan. But it is not intended to be interpreted physically. If Satan were really to come into the presence of God he would shrivel up before His holiness.

In the same way the picture of Satan as being bound in a long chain in the Abyss is simply a picture. It is a picture of a doomed and controlled Satan, a picture of him as a defeated and reined-in foe, as restricted in what he can do. The homely pictures are to be seen as conveying ideas, not describing actual physical events. God is not physical, neither is Satan. We must surely therefore accept that Satan could not be bound with a physical chain. The chain is rather the restrictions put on him by God. Nor indeed could he survive in the presence of God’s awesome holiness. The pictures depict spiritual realities, not physical realities.

The fact is that Satan’s power is such that if he were not restrained Christians would stand no chance against him, and the world even less. If even Michael the archangel hesitates in his dealings with him (Jud 1:9), where would anyone else stand? That is why he had to be ‘restrained’ by a Greater than he and is depicted as bound. He operates on his chain. As we have mentioned, 2Th 1:6 mentions ‘that which restrains’ where ‘that’ is neuter and may well indicate the Abyss and the chain. So while Christians may expect to suffer from his attentions they do so in the confidence that he is restricted by God in what he can do. The result of his being bound is seen here as that the good news goes out into the whole world, ‘he deceives the nations no more’ (Rev 20:3). Light goes out to the Gentiles.

So Satan has been ‘bound’ by Jesus, and subjected to the disciples in Jesus’ name, and is clearly under restraint – and doomed. It is God Who restrains him. No physical chain could restrain Satan, and no physical place hold him. Those are but pictures in earthly terms. The fact that God allows him limited activity does not cancel out this fact. He is still seen as tightly controlled under God’s ‘seal’ like a savage dog on a leash. When he walks around seeking whom he may devour he does it through his minions, those on earth who persecute God’s people. But the further point of Rev 20:1-3 is that for a short period in the future that restraint will be somewhat lifted, as revealed earlier in the book.

At last he will have his hour (Rev 17:12), the little season (Rev 20:3). And this will lead to the final face to face encounter, and the final consummation of the victory of the One Who is the Word of God (Rev 19:11-16; compare Joh 1:1). Thus Rev 20:1-3 is a brief summary of Satan’s defeat and ‘binding’ under God’s control in the period from the time of Jesus’ first coming to the second coming of Christ.

‘Bound him for a thousand years.’ In the ministry of Jesus He had laid emphasis on the fact that His people must be ready for His second coming. As the events described in Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21 occurred the people of God felt the excitement mounting and began to look for that return. But the years passed and He did not come. It was then that the Apostles drew their attention to the fact that in God’s eyes even a thousand years was but a short time (2Pe 3:8).

Peter said, “Do not forget this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day’ (2Pe 3:8). If there is delay in His coming, he says, it is because of God’s longsuffering, His desire to give men ample opportunity for repentance. So he sees ‘a thousand years’ as representing that unknown space of time between Christ’s first and second coming. It simply means a long, long time. Indeed through Peter’s words it may well have become a technical term for that period. And it is for the same length of time that Satan must be bound. It is thus a round number indicating what could be a considerable period of time, the length of which was unknown.

Note on the Biblical Use of ‘A Thousand’.

We do not intend to discuss the question of what a ‘thousand’ indicates when it is used as a part of larger numbers, only its significance when used on its own, as here. Nor will we consider its use when it means a military or family unit. There are a good number of examples of its use on its own:

1). In many cases it is used simply in order to indicate a large amount. Thus:

‘The Lord, the God of your fathers make you a thousand times so many more as you are, and bless you, as He has promised you!’ (Deu 1:11). Here it is simply the equivalent of our saying, ‘I have a thousand things to do.’ It simply means, ‘many times’.

‘And the man said to Joab, ‘Though I should receive a thousand shekels of silver in my hand, yet would I not put forth mine hand against the king’s son: for in our hearing the king charged you and Abishai and Ittai, saying, Beware that none touch the young man Absalom (2Sa 18:12). This is similar to the first case and simply means a large round number. The ‘thousand’ was figurative.

‘And he spoke three thousand proverbs, and his songs were a thousand and five’ (1Ki 4:32). Here we have a generalisation probably indicating a huge number of proverbs and a large number of songs.’ Compare how we might say, ‘I’ve got thousands of them’, and ‘I have a thousand and one things to do’.

‘For every beast of the forest is Mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills’ (Psa 50:10). We can assume that no one asks who the cattle on the other hills belong to. Here a thousand hills point to all hills.

‘Your neck is like the tower of David built for an armoury, on which there hang a thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty men’ (Son 4:4). Again the significance is of a large number.

‘And it shall come about in that day, that every place will be, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings, it shall even be for briars and thorns (Isa 7:23). Again the significance is of a large number.

‘Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand’ (Dan 5:1). It is doubtful if this is intended to indicate an actual number. It rather means a large number of lords.

2). More significant in this context are the examples where ‘a thousand’ is used with a time word indicating the passage of time:

‘Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, Who keeps covenant and mercy with those who love Him and keep His commandments to a thousand generations’ (Deu 7:9). We suspect here that no one would suggest here that God’s mercy would fail once the thousand generations were past, nor that it bound God specifically to a thousand generations. It simply means a great many.

‘For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of My God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness’ (Psa 84:10). Again the significance of ‘a thousand’ is ‘many’, and once more in a time context.

‘For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night’ (Psa 90:4). Here the idea is of a large number, (he could have used any large round number). It is important here because it refers both to how God sees time, and to a time context.

‘He has remembered His covenant for ever, the word which He commanded to a thousand generations’ (Psa 105:8). Here again we have a reference to God’s view of time and it is related specifically to the passing of time and to a time word, ‘generations’. No one would suggest that here the idea is that after a thousand generation He would forget His covenant, nor that He is indicating that a thousand generations will actually be achieved.

‘Yes, though he live a thousand years twice told, yet has he seen no good. Do not all go to one place?’ (Ecc 6:6). Here ‘a thousand years’ signifies a long time, and interestingly it can without difficulty be seen as two thousand.

All this would seem to stress that when God says ‘a thousand years’ it simply means a long extent of time.

End of note.

‘After this he must be loosed for a little time.’ In Revelation 17 the scarlet beast is released from the abyss for such a time (Rev 17:8), as is the king of the abyss (Rev 9:11), and under the wild beast the ten kings exercise authority for ‘one hour’ (Rev 17:12). Satan himself is also aware from the beginning that he only has ‘a short time’ (Rev 12:12). So all the ingredients of these first three verses are found earlier in Revelation. They are a resume of what has gone before.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Vision 8 The History of Satan and the People of God ( Rev 20:1-10 ).

This passage is of special significance. Indeed it determines greatly what view we take of the whole overall doctrine of the Second Coming.

Those who read it just as a continuation of chapter 19 glean from it the doctrine of the Millennium, which they see as a time of peace and plenty on earth as described in the Old Testament prophets. But the prophets had no conception of a life in another heavenly world and thus had to describe the eternal future in that way. Those who take this view apply all these prophecies literally without considering the fact that many of them transcend time (they speak of ‘everlasting); that the deeper inner meaning is drawn out constantly in the New Testament (e.g. Gal 4:21-31; Heb 11:10-14); and that there is an application of those prophecies in Revelation.

Yet there is no detailed description of such an age in this narrative, nor any mention of it anywhere else in the New Testament. Neither Jesus or Paul ever refer to the idea of a millennium. In this chapter the concentration is rather on the binding of Satan and the triumph of the people of God.

In fact a careful examination of the narrative here points to the fact that this is a new vision, and that it is a brief summary of the history of Satan and the people of God from the time of the triumph of the Man-child when He takes His place on the Father’s throne as judge and ruler of all (Rev 12:3), until the final establishment of God’s everlasting kingdom. It is a new vision summarising salvation history as already revealed in earlier visions.

Consider the parallels with previous descriptions.

1) Satan is depicted as bound. Here we can compare Mar 3:27; Luk 11:22 along with all verses which refer to the defeat of Satan which was accomplished by Christ’s presence on earth, and through His cross and resurrection (e.g. Col 2:15; see below for further detail). Consider also the reference to the present ‘restraint’ of Satan in 2Th 2:5-10.

2) The purpose of this restraint here is so that he may not be able to deceive the nations. The New Testament constantly refers to the fact that he is the deceiver of men. He is indeed the arch deceiver. Throughout the Old Testament period, with rare exceptions, the nations had been kept in darkness, deceived by Satan. But now those who walk in darkness will see a great light through the coming of the man child (Mat 4:14-16). On those who dwell in the land of the shadow of death light will spring up (see also Isa 9:2). For them at least the deceiver will be able to deceive no more. He is ‘chained’.

3) He will be released for a little while at the end of the age – compare Rev 17:8; Rev 17:12; Rev 9:2-11. See also Rev 12:12. The same period is surely being referred to. We cannot expect two releases.

He will take up his position on the sand of the sea in order to enlist the nations in his activities (Rev 13:1 a; compare Rev 20:8)

4) He will finally be brought into judgment. Compare Rev 19:11-21. Along with the Beast and the False Prophet (Rev 19:20) he is cast into the Lake of Fire (Rev 20:10).

5) Meanwhile the people of God will triumph.

Thus this is the heavenly counterpart of all that is happening on earth. It is not all in the future. Indeed, apart from Satan’s short time, it is for us mainly in the past. It has been and is happening.

This also ties in with another remarkable fact. In Revelation 12 we read of ‘the great Dragon who was cast down, the old Serpent who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world’, who was ‘cast down to earth, and his angels were cast down with him’ (Rev 12:9). The chapter then delineates his activity as he seeks to destroy the man child, Jesus Christ, and then the ‘woman’ who bore Him (Israel), finally turning his attention to ‘the rest of her seed’. But the interesting fact to note is that he is then only once more mentioned and that in an incident that refers to the final days of the age (Rev 16:13). While his influence is undoubtedly felt, there is no mention of him (other than in Rev 16:13), from Rev 13:1 to Rev 19:21. But now suddenly the idea is taken up again using exactly the same terminology as in chapter 12, for the writer again refers to ‘the Dragon, the old Serpent, who is the Devil and Satan’ (Rev 20:2; compare Rev 12:9), thus connecting back to chapter 12. It is as though chapter 20 is taking over where chapter 12 finished off. Thus chapter 20 continues the story of Satan from chapter 12, with what comes between being, as it were, a parenthesis (as will be seen we could move directly from chapter 12 to chapter 20). We ask at the end of chapter 12, what happened to Satan? Why is he not mentioned in what follows? We are given the answer in chapter 20. He was enchained in the Abyss, from which he was released in Rev 9:1-11. The ‘1000 years’ thus occurs between his binding in the days of Jesus and the early church, and his release in Rev 9:1-11. This is then followed by the short time that he is allowed in order to do his worst.

Let us consider this in more detail.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

The Millennial Reign of Christ Jesus – When Satan tempted man in the Garden of Eden, man relinquished his legal right to Satan dominion this earth. This loss of authority brought man into bondage to sin for six thousand years. The Mosaic Law states that the year of Jubilee, which follows the seventh Sabbath year, the fiftieth year of the land, is a time of deliverance from all bondage, at which time all property is restored to those who sold themselves into bondage, and all land is restored to its rightful owners (Lev 25:8-17). In a similar manner, Satan will have to give up his legal rights on this earth for the Sabbath millennium.

Rev 20:1 Comments Note that this angel was not Michael, or the text most likely would have mentioned so. This was an angel in Heaven, given the task of binding Satan in the bottomless pit, a task reveals the utter weakness and total defeat of Satan.

Rev 20:2 “that old serpent” Comments This phrase immediately takes us back to the story of the Fall of man in Gen 3:1-19. We must realize that the book of Genesis is giving us literal facts. This is not an allegorical story designed to explain mysterious events. Therefore, we believe that Satan actually manifested himself in the form of a serpent for the purpose of succeeding in his deception. We have confirmation that this serpent was in fact Satan when he is called that “old serpent” in the book of Revelation.

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

Of the Dragon Bound and Loosed, of Gog and Magog, and of the Last Judgment.

Satan’s binding for one thousand years:

v. 1. And I saw an angel come down from heaven having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.

v. 2. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,

v. 3. and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years should be fulfilled; and after that he must be loosed a little season.

The Book of Revelation is not a history of events given in chronological order, but a series of visions dealing with the chief dangers and the principal blessings which would come upon the Church of Christ. The visions thus supplement one another and dovetail into one another in a composite picture. Only by keeping this fact in mind are we able to understand the present vision. The seer writes: And I saw an angel descending out of heaven having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. The angel here spoken of was either one of God’s spirits specially delegated for this work, or it was the great Angel of Jehovah, the Son of God Himself; for it is He that has the keys of death and of hell, chap. 1:18; it is He that has the power to bind all enemies, whether material or spiritual. It was the exalted power and majesty of Christ that here appeared with the implements necessary to put an enemy under restraint.

This the angel proceeds to do: And he overpowered the dragon, the old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, and bound him thousand years, and threw him into the abyss, and shut and sealed it above him, lest he seduce the heathen yet also, until thousand years should be fulfilled. After these he is bound to be loosed for a short time. So the devil, who is fitly called a dragon, a ferocious monster, the old serpent, who has been deceiving men since the time of Adam and Eve, was deprived of his power for a definite space of time; not that he and his hordes would be absent from the world entirely, but that they would not be able, during this time, to seduce also the heathen and make them their allies. It would thus be a season of comparative quiet for the Church of Christ; for Satan would be rendered harmless to the extent of being bound in the pit, which was sealed over him. While the heathen were in his power, were his servants, the spell of Satan’s authority would no longer hold them with the chains of absolute tyranny. With the message of Satan’s defeat, which went out in the Gospel of the resurrection of Jesus, the devil’s hold was broken. The length of time for which this condition should obtain was definitely determined with God, though probably not in terms of time as we use it. And when the last hour of these thousand years are at an end, then Satan will be loosed for a short while, then the Gospel’s phenomenal and victorious march through the nations will be at an end. It is not that the Day of Judgment will then come, for God has determined that the time of the New Testament should include the thousand years of the Gospel’s victorious spreading through the nations, plus the little season of Satan’s being loose. “Satan shall be loosed, not for his own sake, neither for the sake of those who during the period of his binding have disregarded the sweet Gospel-call; Satan is loosed for the sake of the dear children of God. This loosing of Satan is for a fiery trial of God’s children; and that it is at the same time a judgment upon the unbelievers is their own fault. In this fiery trial God intends to purify the faith of His children from all dross and make it strong… Thus vv. 1 -3 tell us that John saw Jesus, the mighty Conqueror, bind Satan, so that, through the greater part of the New Testament time, he should not prevent the preaching of the Gospel and the winning of the nations for Christ, and that for a little season immediately preceding, and ushering in, the day of final Judgment Satan should be loosed.”

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

EXPOSITION

Rev 20:1

And I saw an angel come down from heaven; coming down out of heaven. The usual mode of introducing a new vision (cf. Rev 4:1, etc.). On account of Rev 1:18, some have considered this angel to be Christ himself; but this is incorrect. As in Rev 12:7-9, an angel is the immediate agent in this expulsion of Satan (vide infra).

Having the key of the bottomless pit; the abyss; as in Rev 9:1, Rev 9:2, Rev 9:11; Rev 11:7; Rev 17:8. In all these places the word signifies the present abode of Satan and his angels, whence they direct their operations in hostility to God, not the place of their final punishment (see Rev 17:10). In Luk 8:31 the word has exactly the same meaning; while in the only remaining place where it is used in the New Testament, viz. Rom 10:7, it stands for the place of abode of the souls of the dead. Having the key of the abyss therefore informs us that power is given to this angel over Satan during the time of this world’s existence. And a great chain in his hand; literally, upon his hand, as if lying on it and hanging from it; the chain evidently symbolizing the power of the angel over the inhabitants of the abyss, and the purpose with which he now comes, viz. to restrain the power of Satan.

Rev 20:2, Rev 20:3

And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan. These titles are an exact repetition of Rev 12:9 (which see). And bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit. The abyss, as we have seen (on Rev 12:1), is the present abode of Satan; the act of binding, therefore, is now over. This fact opposes the interpretation which makes “the thousand years” yet in the future. When, then, did this binding take place? Only one answer can be given. It was when Christ bruised the serpent’s head by his act of redemption. Thus, “Christ was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil” (1Jn 3:8); “Now shall the prince of this world be cast out.” (Joh 12:31); “The prince of this world hath been judged” (Joh 16:11). Satan is the strong man bound (Mat 12:26, Mat 12:29). Next, what is meant by “for a thousand years”? The best interpretation seems to be that this phrase expresses a quality, and does not express a period of time. That such a method of employing numbers is usual in the Apocalypse we have frequently seen (see on Rev 1:4, “seven;” Rev 13:1, “ten,” etc.). Here, therefore, as in Rev 7:4, “one thousand” signifies “completeness.” Satan is bound “for a thousand years;” that is, Satan is completely bound. In Ezekiel (from which the following part of the vision is certainly derived) a similar use is made of the terms “seven years” (Eze 39:9) and “seven months” (Eze 39:12). But, again, in what sense can Satan be said to have been “completely” bound by our Lord’s work of redemption? The answer isIn relation to the godly. The purpose of this sentence is that which is one great purpose of the whole book, viz. to encourage the struggling Christian. Thus this sentence assures Christians that, for them, Satan has been completely bound, and they need not despair nor fear his might (cf. “loosed,” infra). The chapter thus describes, not a millennium of the saints, but the overthrow of Satan. Before the picture of the war and the overthrow, the saints are invited to behold the complete security of those who have not worshipped the beast nor his image; just as the vision of Christ victorious introduced the seal visions. And shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled; and shut [it] and sealed [it] over him, etc. It is possible that there is here a reference to the death and burial of Christ (Mat 27:66). Satan “met in reality that fate which he was able, in a shadowy and temporary form, to inflict on Jesushe was bound and shut up in the abyss, and the abyss was sealed over him” (Milligan. Cf. also the word “abyss,” supra). Satan was thus bound “that he might deceive the nations no more,” etc.; that is, Satan, in his character of the deceiver (cf. Rev 12:9) of the world, is thus limited in his power by the binding which has been described. The nations; in the sense of the world, not the ungodly world. And after that he must be loosed a little season. Omit “and.” “A little time” ( ) is the exact phrase used in Rev 6:11, where it certainly means the period of this world’s existence. Such also is its meaning here. “He must be loosed” signifies that Satan is, in regard to the ungodly, allowed to work his will during this period. The thousand years’ binding, and the loosing for a little time, describe two events which occur contemporaneously. While the godly need have no fear, because even in this world Satan’s power as regards them is completely limited by Christ’s act of redemption, yet in another sense, as regards the ungodly, Satan is loosed and obtains power over them. The chief difficulty in this interpretation lies in the words, “after this.” But it must be remembered that the “thousand years” do not express a period of time, but the quality of completeness. Therefore the loosing of Satan must not be supposed to take place in a period subsequent to the period of the binding. The seer wishes to describe the devil in a twofold character, subordinating the second to the first. He thus says, “By Christ’s redeeming work Satan is bound and fettered in regard to you faithful Christians; but there is also a second subordinate fact to remember, that at the same time he is powerful in his natural sphere, among his own adherents.” The binding of Satan in one direction being immediately followed by a display of power in another, and the former fact being expressed by the chronological symbolism of being bound for a thousand years, it is part of this chronological symbolism to express the second fact as taking place after the first, though a subordination of the secondary to the primary effect is really what is intended to be conveyed (see Milligan, quoted above).

Rev 20:4

And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them. This describes the position of Christians in this life. They sit upon thrones; that is, they reign with Christ. Judgment is given unto them; that is, by their conduct in the world the world is judged and condemned. St. John continually thus describes the Christian’s position; and such a picture is specially applicable for his purpose here, which is to portray the glory of the Christian calling, and the certainty of the Christian’s hope. The redeemed have been made kings, and reign (Rev 5:10). So also St. Paul says we are “blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” (Eph 1:2). 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. This is a special reference to the martyrs made with the object mentioned above, viz. that of encouraging Christians in their warfare. The class here described forms part of the whole body of Christians alluded to in the first part of the verse (cf. Rev 6:10; Rev 1:9; Rev 12:17; Rev 19:10; also Rev 13:1-18.; Rev 15:2). In the same way the souls referred to in Rev 6:9 are those existing during the period of this world, which we have here understood to be denoted indirectly by the “thousand years.” And they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. “The thousand years” adopted in the Textus Receptus, is found in B and others, but omitted in , A, and others. “They lived and reigned with Christ” in complete and perfect assurance, as in Rev 6:2, and for the reason given in Rev 6:2, viz. that, Satan was bound completely. This living and reigning must not be limited to the period after the death of the martyrs (though it is doubtless true in this sense also), notwithstanding the fact that St. John sees them here after their death. It is as though he would say, “You Christians sit upon thrones and reign with Christ; yea, even those who suffered shameful deaths shared this perfect safety and exaltation, though to the eyes of the world they were so afflicted and degraded.” They lived is described in verse 5 as the “first resurrection.” This can only be referred to that first awakening from sin to the glorious life of the gospel, which St. John elsewhere describes in a similar manner. “He that heareth my Word hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life” (Joh 5:24); “We have passed from death unto life” (1Jn 3:14).

Rev 20:5

But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished; should be finished. Omit “but;” omit “again.” It is important to notice the omission of “again;” the rest of the dead lived not until, etc. The best explanation of these words seems to be that the “rest of the dead” refers to those Old Testament saints and others (such as godly heathens) who were in the world before Christ’s act of atonement”the thousand years” (see on Rev 20:2, above)had been accomplished. They could not be said to have lived, in the high sense in which St. John uses the word, not having known Christ; for “in him was life” (Joh 1:4; Joh 5:40, etc.). But by Christ’s redeeming work, these were placed on a level with Christians (cf. Luk 7:28, “John the Baptist: but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he;” also Heb 11:39, Heb 11:40, “And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect”). This is the first resurrection. These words refer both to the reigning of those mentioned in verse 4, and to the living of those in verse 5 (vide supra). This “first resurrection” is the spiritual rising with Christ, which is a consequence of his redeeming work. It is to be noticed that St. John nowhere makes use of the phrase, “second resurrection,” though he does use the words, “second death.” Both the “first resurrection” and the “second death” are spiritual operations.

Rev 20:6

Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years; over these the second death hath no authority. The first words describe the state of those who have part in the spiritual resurrection with Christ (see on Rev 20:5). The second clause gives to the oppressed Christian the culminating reason for patience and perseverance. The “second death” is the spiritual death of the lake of fire (Rev 20:14). Priests of God, etc. (cf. Rev 1:6; Rev 5:10). A thousand years; in complete and everlasting security (see on Rev 20:2, et seq.). We may in this place briefly indicate some of the other interpretations which have been given to this reign of. the saints for a thousand years, or, as it is generally styled, the millennium.

(1) The literal interpretation of a future reign on earth of Christ with his saints for a thousand years. According to this view, there is to be a first resurrection of the dead (either of the holy dead or of all the dead), then the period of a thousand years, during which Satan will be bound, and the saints will reign; then finally the ultimate punishment of Satanthe casting into the lake of fire. Some limit the locality of this reign to a particular spot on the earth (e.g. Jerusalem), beyond which live the ungodly. The objections to this theory are:

(a) Amongst its advocates almost every detail is a matter of dispute. Some place the millennium in the future, others in the past. Of these latter some specify the first thousand years of the Christian age, others the thousand years from the time of Constantine. “The length of the period, the number and class of the believers who shall be partakers of its glory, the condition in which they are to live, the work in which they are to be engaged, the relation in which the exalted Redeemer is to stand to them,” are all subjects for disagreement.

(b) The carnal nature of such a resurrection is at variance with the general teaching of the Bible, and unlike the spiritual nature which our Lord himself assumed after his resurrection.

(c) If the saints receive a glorified body for that period, it is impossible to conceive of them as living in the world in its present state, and a large part of which is inhabited by the ungodly.

(d) It is impossible satisfactorily to conceive what relations could exist between the saints in such a case and the ungodly. If Satan is bound during this period so that he can deceive the nations no more, whence comes the evil which exists among the ungodly portion of the world?

(e) There is no other example of a literal use of numbers in the whole of the Apocalypse.

(f) The teaching of the Bible elsewhere not only negatively fails to support this view, but is in positive opposition to it, in such points as a continuance of evil after Christ’s second coming; the existence of an interval between his coming and the judgment instead of a sudden coming to judgment (comp. Joh 6:40, “I will raise him up at the last day”).

(2) The spiritual interpretation, which makes the thousand years expressive of the whole Christian age. This seems to a certain extent true, since what the thousand years signifies does have its effect during this time in the reign of the saints. But it seems inexact, since it makes the thousand years symbolical of a length of time, instead of a quality attached to an action. What is meant is not that Christ bound Satan during the period of the Christian age (though, as we have seen, there is a sense in which he is so bound as regards believers), for, on the contrary, he goes about like a roaring lion; but that he bound and overthrew him completely for all Christians by his redeeming work.

Rev 20:7

And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison; are finished; that is, the power of the devil having been in principle completely overthrown by our Lord (see on preceding verses), Satan is still permitted to wage war and exercise sway on the earth. “His prison” is the “abyss” of Rev 20:1, Rev 20:3 (cf. also Rev 20:3).

Rev 20:8

And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog; four corners. The signification of “Gog and Magog” (vide infra) shows in what sense “the nations” is used. It is in the limited sense of the ungodly of the world, not in the wider sense in which the expression is used (without any qualifying clause) in Rev 20:3. Magog in Gen 10:2 is mentioned among the sons of Japheth who were the ancestors of the northern nations (cf. Eze 38:15 and Eze 39:2). Hence the name Magog is used to denote the northern tribes, whose invasion of Palestine and adjoining parts took place about B.C. 630-600. From Eze 39:1-29, it seems that Gog was originally a leader among these tribes; and from Eze 38:17 it seems that Ezekiel took these names to be symbolical of all the foes of the people of God. Jewish tradition makes use of these names to indicate those nations who were expected to war against Jerusalem in the last days, and to be overthrown by the Messiah. Hence the employment of the terms hero by St. John as denoting the ungodly people of the world, amongst whom Satan still exercises his power, though that power is limited to these, and he is completely bound as regards true believers. To gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea; to the war; the article points definitely to the war of Rev 19:19 and Rev 16:14. It is a prolonged war, not a battle, because lasting throughout life. The vastness of the hosts of Gog and Magog is alluded to in Eze 38:9, Eze 38:16. This is in conformity with our Lord’s teaching: “Many are called, but few are chosen” (Mat 22:14; cf. also Mat 7:14).

Rev 20:9

And they went up on the breadth cf the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city; over the breadth. “They went up” as an army to attack the enemy (cf. Jdg 1:1). Either we must render the camp even the beloved city, or else we must understand the camp as a defensive outpost placed around or near the city. In Act 21:34 the same word is rendered “castle.” “The beloved city” is evidently Jerusalem (of Psa 78:68), that is, the Church of God, of which it is always a type in the Apocalypse (cf. Rev 3:12; Rev 21:2, Rev 21:10). The description plainly portrays the Church militant here on earth. And fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. “From God” is omitted in A, a few cursives, and Primasius, but appears in , B, P, l, 7, and most cursives and versions; but these authorities vary in the position of the added clause. So in Rev 11:1-19. fire devours the enemies of the two witnesses. This sentence is introduced in connection with the description of Gog and Magog, following the account of Ezekiel, where the same punishment is foretold (see Eze 38:22; Eze 39:6). It is probable, therefore, that nothing more definite is intended than to convey the general idea that God aids and protects his Church even while on earth. He, as it were, gives the enemies of his people a foretaste, while here on earth, of their future punishment of the lake of fire (see also on the seal visions).

Rev 20:10

And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever; and they shall be tormented. The last clause shows that this is the final judgment and punishment of the devil. Thus at this verse is completed the whole series of visions commencing at Rev 12:1-17., in which arc set forth the origin and progress of the influence of evil, and the final termination of the conflict between God and his Church on the one hand, and the devil and his adherents on the other. It remains now only to shadow forth the surpassing glory of the saints in their everlasting home, and thus to bring the book to a conclusion. This, therefore, is the theme of the remaining chapters. Shall be tormented (cf. Mat 8:29, “Art thou come hither to torment us before the time?”).

Rev 20:11

And I saw a great white throne. And I saw; introducing a new phase of the vision (el. Rev 20:1, etc.). A throne is seen as in Rev 4:1-11.2; it is great, perhaps, by comparison with those mentioned in Rev 4:4; white, because this is the colour of purity and all heavenly virtues (cf. Rev 1:14; Rev 2:17; Rev 3:4, etc.). And him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. The true reading, “before the throne,” in the following verse makes it clear that God the Judge is here intended. Perhaps from Mat 25:31 and Joh 5:22 we must infer that God the Son is meant. The destruction of the world is complete”no place is found for them;” they are annihilated. Such an event is nearly always portrayed in the description of the last judgment in the Apocalypse and in the New Testament generally (cf. Rev 16:20).

Rev 20:12

And I saw (see on Rev 20:11) the dead, small and great, stand before God; the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne. All the dead, good and bad, as in Mat 25:31-33. This is the general resurrection; what St. John might have called the second resurrection, with regard to the godly, who have once before risen to a life with Christ (see on verse 5). Now, those who would not voluntarily share in the first resurrection are compelled to share in the second. And the books were opened. Omit the article (cf. the description in Dan 7:10). And another book was opened, which is the book of life. This book has been frequently referred to (Rev 3:5; Rev 13:8; Rev 17:8). The idea is not uncommon throughout the Bible (cf. Psa 69:28; Dan 12:1; Luk 10:20). And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. Both the godly and the ungodly. “The books” show fully why certain names are selected and inscribed in the “book of life.” Here is enforced again the lesson with which the Apocalypse opens in the epistles to the seven Churches, viz. that the reward will follow according to the works (cf. Rev 2:5; Rev 3:15, etc.).

Rev 20:13

And the sea gave up the dead which were in it. It is difficult to decide upon the exact signification of this clause.

(1) It may be inserted in order to show the universal nature of this resurrection, although it may not, in conjunction with the next part of the verse, constitute a strictly logical classification of the dead.

(2) The sea being a type of the ungodly nations, the sentence may mean those spiritually dead, but living on the earth at the time of the judgment. The next clause seems to support this view. And death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them; death and Hades (see Rev 1:18; Rev 6:8). As in Rev 6:8, the tworeally oneare mentioned separately, the latter being looked upon as the guard house of those whom the former has seized. This clause, taken in conjunction with the preceding one, may meanFrom the ungodly nations, those physically living but spiritually dead were called up for judgment, and also those who were actually dead, having been seized by death and Hades. And they were judged every man according to their works. A solemn repetition of Rev 6:12 (which see).

Rev 20:14

And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire; death and Hades (see on Rev 20:13). Lake of fire (see on Rev 20:10). This is described in accordance with St. Paul’s teaching. “The last enemy that shall be abolished is death” (1Co 15:26, Revised Version). Death and Hades, though in reality abstractions, are here personified. This is the second death. Add [even] the lake of fire. St. John has not used the phrase, “the first death,” but he has alluded to the fact. The first death is the actual death of the body, and which is the natural result of that spiritually dead state into which, since the Fall, man is horn, and which is therefore, as it were, his normal state. In a similar manner, the first resurrection is the risen spiritual life of conversion; while the second resurrection is the resurrection of all men, and the bestowal of eternal life upon the just.

Rev 20:15

And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was east into the lake of fire; and if any was not, etc. This is practically a reiteration of what has been twice before solemnly asserted (see Rev 20:12, Rev 20:13).

HOMILETICS

Rev 20:1-3

Satan bound for a thousand years.

God sees the end from the beginning. If he pleases, he can disclose the future to others, although even then, by reason of the limitation of creature faculties, the unfolding of the future must be limited too. There is, moreover, one feature of that limit which cannot be too clearly recognized, viz. that inasmuch as man has no strictly creative power, and can only weave new patterns by putting together in different forms the materials ready to his hand, so also he can conceive of the new life of the ages to come only by means of some varied setting of the scenes of the ages that are past. Hence our God graciously stoops to our capacity, and puts his revealings of the forthcoming years under the form of the facts which have marked those that are past. Thus the events which are to mark the consummation of this age are set forth in two forms, viz.

(1) by a representation of the good we already enjoy as wrought up to a higher degree of perfection; and

(2) by setting forth the evil over which we mourn as brought to extinction, or as restricted within narrower bounds. Now, under this last-mentioned form, a prolonged period is here set forth, spoken of as a thousand years, as one during which the evil one shall be bound and pent up within his own place. Many questions naturally start up as we study this passagea passage which is not specially easy, under any circumstances, but which we cannot help thinking has been made to appear vastly more difficult than it is in itself, by reason of the enormous incubus of fanciful theories by which it has been all but smothered. We venture to think that even although, owing to lack of data, there are some queries the full answer to which must yet be left in abeyance, yet there is quite enough in the verses before us that is sufficiently clear to make the heart leap with delight, to stimulate our hopes, and to excite our prayers. Who is the angel? What is the period of a thousand years? What is the binding? When does it begin? These are the queries which seem to need a reply before we can appreciate and appropriate the disclosures which the paragraph contains.

1. Who is the angel? Some say the Lord Jesus Christ, because he alone controls Satan’s power. It is quite true that Jesus alone controls the evil one, but it is also true that he does so at times by the instrumentality of others. So far as the symbolism of the text goes, there is no reason for thinking the angel to be other than a created one. Still, if any see reason for thinking otherwise, even then the main sense of the passage is the same. Our Lord Jesus may bind the evil one directly or mediately.

2. What is the period specified? There are four hypotheses respecting the thousand years. One that it is to be taken literally; a second, that on the “day for a year” principle it is equivalent to 365,000 years; a third, that it is an indication of completeness, but not of time; a fourth, that it is a definite expression for a period indefinitely prolonged. The first of these is the one most commonly adopted; although why, if twelve hundred and sixty days mean twelve hundred and sixty years, the “thousand years” should be less than that by two hundred and sixty days is to the writer extremely puzzling. The second and third views have few defenders. It seems to us to be much safer to look at the expression as indicating an indefinite period of time, of immense durationa time of peace and freedom from ill, which will vastly exceed the period of trial and sorrow during which the Church’s wilderness life will have lasted.

3. What is the binding? At present it may suffice to say that it certainly denotes such a restriction upon Satan, his doings and rovings, that during this period he will not be able to “go about seeking whom he may devour “to the extent he would desire.

4. When does the binding begin? According to some, it is past.

(1) According to Hengstenberg, the thousand years began

According to many, and among them the most thoughtful and devout expositors, the binding of Satan began when Jesus came. Our Lord’s casting out devils proved that a check was put on Satan’s power; this restraint was increased when Jesus died, and is continued in the perpetual advance of the kingdom of Christ. They refer to such passages as Mat 12:29; Heb 2:14, Heb 2:15; 1Jn 3:8; Col 2:15; Luk 10:18. But

(a) the symbolism of the text seems to indicate a more effectual restraint on evil than the earth as yet has known; and

(b) since the binding of Satan is placed so nearly to the consummation of all things, since the kingdom of Christ had actually been in progress for some thirty years when the book was written, and since the prophecies were declared to be of “things which should be hereafter,” it seems much more consonant with the date, the aim, and the plan of the book to think of the binding of Satan as that which was yet to come in the revolutions of the ages. At the same time, it is quite possible to combine this second view with another,

(3) according to which, even if the binding of Satan did commence with the establishment of the kingdom of Christ, the results of that binding would take ages to work out, and would, in the long run, bring about more of calm and of rest than earth has yet been permitted to see. Even the expositors who adopt the second view do in many cases combine it with the third, and regard the binding here specified as something so much more effective than any hitherto known, as to be virtually new. It is to this conclusion that we find ourselves shut up: that this period which is spoken of as a thousand years is one of a blessed calm yet to be realized, surpassing all that earth has known; that though the causes are already at work to bring it about, and though the train of events is laid which is to usher it in, yet that the passage refers to the blessed issue in days to come, when evil shall be kept under more effective restraint than before. This period is what is generally thought of as “the millennium.” From the passage before us it is perfectly clear that the millennium is not a period of the extinction of evil, but only of its restraint. Neither sin nor death nor the curse will cease till the new heavens and the new earth are brought in, and they are not yet. While, however, the righteous on earth will enjoy a period of delightful calm, the faithful ones who shall have gone hence will be living and reigning with Christ all that while. They will be enjoying “the first resurrection” (see next homily). Let as now, after these few preliminary explanations, look at our present theme, “the binding of Satan,” in the light of the entire Scripture teaching, that we may learn what is to be the state of the world during this period of halcyon calm, and how it is to be brought about by forces and agencies already in operation. We shall approach our subject cautiously and gradually. May we in God’s light see light!

I. THERE IS IN THE WORLD A MIGHTY FORCE OF EVIL. AS set forth in these Apocalyptic visions, we have seen:

1. That old serpent, called the devil.

2. The first beast, or worldly power opposed to God, having its power from the dragon.

3. The second beast, or false prophet, having his power from the first.

4. The harlot, Babylon the great, or apostasy, whether in the ecclesiastical or commercial sphere. We have seen No. 4 destroyed; Nos. 3 and 2 cast into the lake of fire; still No. 1 remains. We are to watch what becomes of him. His power in the world is too well known.

II. MIGHTIER FORCES OF GOOD, ALTHOUGH UNSEEN, ARE IN THE BACKGROUND. As we read this book, we can but note that evil is surveyed from above; held in check by God; allowed to work for a timeknown to the year, the month, the day, and the hour. And as we have seen the downfall of three of the forms of evil, we here watch with deepest interest a new check upon the first.

III. THE EMPLOYMENT OF THE MIGHTIER AGAINST THE MIGHTY HAS BEEN MATTER OF ANCIENT PROMISE. No sooner had the tempter marred Eden’s bowers than the promise was given (Gen 3:15). The serpent might bruise the seed of the woman, but he would do so at a fatal cost to himself. Dim promise! needing the evolution of ages to interpret it, but yet containing that which is the basis of our hope when in agony over the tempter’s power.

IV. THE STRONGER FORCE OF GOOD HAS EVER BEEN AT WORK. This world has never been given up to the evil one. He has never roamed unchecked. He has gone about only so far as the Lord of souls has permitted. When Jesus hung on the cross, his power was grappled with; when he died, “the prince of this world” was “cast out.” Through death our Lord means to destroy him that has the power of death, even the devil, and to deliver them who through fear of death are all their lifetime subject to bondage. “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.” And when the Prince of life resigned his breath, crying, “It is finished!” then did the empire of darkness receive a fatal blow, and the death knell of sin was sounded in the hearing of heaven, earth, and hell (cf. Gen 3:15; Joh 12:31; Heb 2:14, Heb 2:15; Col 2:15; Mat 12:29; Act 26:18).

V. WHEREVER THE GOSPEL HAS BEEN PREACHED THERE A BINDING OF SATAN HAS BEEN AND IS BEING EFFECTED. Probably no one supposes that the phrase “binding” is to be taken literally. One way in which an effect would be wrought which would most naturally and impressively be described as a binding of Satan, would be that of transferring his subjects to another power, and so despoiling his kingdom. When Satan is rendered powerless to retain his prey, and more powerless still when he has lost them, surely he is bound. Now, we know not only that in and on the cross our Lord spoiled principalities and powers, and made a show of them openly, but also that Paul and others were sent forth to turn men from the power of Satan unto God, and that the great apostle praised God that the Colossians were snatched from the power of darkness and transferred to the kingdom of the Son of God. Even so. Satan is no match for the Saviour’s cross and the Spirit’s sword. He has ever moved in chains, but never were his chains so heavy or so fast as since Jesus died.

VI. NEVERTHELESS, THE PASSAGE BEFORE US LEADS US TO EXPECT A MUCH GREATER RESTRAINT ON SATAN‘S ACTIVITY THAN HAS AS YET BEEN KNOWN. Peter refers to him as “going about,” etc. Paul said, “The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly.” So that we are already prepared to expect a time when Satan’s power on the earth shall be curtailed more and more. The verb here used () gives the impression of some very strong, decided, and perhaps sudden arrest. What will be the means by which this will be carried out we are not here told. In the absence of aught to the contrary, we have a right to expect that the “Word of truth and the power of God” will suffice to bring about the whole, when the Spirit of God “convicts the world of sin” (Joh 16:8). No one can show that these “weapons of the holy war” are inadequate, nor that the power of the Holy Ghost is to be supplanted by aught more effective for the subjugation of evil. Let but the Divine power which has subdued our hearts be universally diffused, and it is enough. For surely Satan will be effectually bound when hearts refuse to give him room.

VII. WHEN THE BINDING OF SATAN IS COMPLETELY EFFECTED, THERE MUST NEEDS BE A PERIOD OF REST, SUCH AS NEITHER THE WORLD NOR THE CHURCH HAS ENJOYED SINCE “SIN ENTERED INTO THE WORLD, AND DEATH BY SIN.” We are more and more drawn towards the conviction that our Lord himself commenced this binding of the evil when he began his public ministry; and that as the power of the gospel advances, the binding becomes more and more stringent. The duration of time intended by a thousand years we cannot define. Some, as Professor Milligan, regard it as giving no temporal indication at all, but as expressive of completeness. But if the binding of Satan has been going on ever since our Lord was on earth, the thousand years begun then are going on now, and are moving forward to their completion. Well may we pray, “O Lord, hasten that day when Satan shall be so completely bound that he will be unable to retain a single captive in his hold!” How will an emancipated world rejoice! The rebuke of God’s people will be taken away from off all the earth. The reign of peace and righteousness shall set in, and the time be come when on the bells of the horses shall be graven, “Holiness to the Lord.” Why it should be that after this effectual binding there should be allowed another onrush of evil, we cannot tell; but the holy seer bids us look to the end even of that, and to luxuriate in the blessed vision of complete and endless rest.

Note:

1. Let our faith embrace all that is in the Word, and we shall then find nothing in the fiercest conflicts of the age to shock or disturb it.

2. Let us thank God for the restraint which we know is even now put upon Satan. He worries, but he cannot devour. Christ prays for us, that Satan may not sift us as wheat.

3. Let us be stimulated by the fact that, through the energy of the Spirit of God, the power of evil is being subdued within us and around us.

4. Let us, with renewed faith, energy, prayer, and hope, be found doing our part towards bringing about earth’s time of rest. Let no disbelief, either in the efficacy of the gospel or in the power of the Spirit, be allowed to paralyze our movements by lessening our hope. The grace which has conquered millions on millions of hearts is adequate still to go forth conquering and to conquer.

Rev 20:4

The blessed dead living and reigning with Christ during the thousand years.

We are compelled to differ more widely from the great bulk of expositors in regard to this than in regard to almost any other passage in the entire Apocalypse. It seems to us that, in order to piece out a tolerably complete theory, many interpreters do very frequently assume some matters of great magnitude for which there is no warrant either in the text or the context. It is well known that this passage is the one which is supposed, above all others, to teach the doctrine of the personal reign of Christ upon the earth during the millennium. It is supposed that Jerusalem will be his central seat of authority and power; that the righteous dead will then be raised in such bodies as are to be immortal; that the saints will be Christ’s attendants, and will participate with Jesus in the government of the world; that this will last through a period of a thousand years; that during this period the world will be subdued and converted, not by such means as are now used, but by those peculiar to the new dispensation to be ushered in by Christ’s personal reign; that at the close of this period all the dead will be judged, and the affairs of this earth consummated. Some who do not fully adopt this view regard the first resurrection as one taking place on earth. According to some, it is a resurrection of bodies; according to others, it is a resurrection of principles; according to a third group, it is a resurrection of the Christian party; according to a fourth, it is one or memories and names. Others, again, regard it as a resurrection from earth, not on it; and here also we have to divide expositors into two groupssome looking at this first resurrection as a resurrection to heaven of the martyrs only; and others, as of all the blessed dead. Amid such a confused Babel, let us, as Ridley used to say, “give ourselves up to the text, and let it lead us by the hand.” We see that the statement before us stands in connection with that period of a thousand years during which Satan is said to be bound. During this period in which the earth is released to a great extent from the power of the evil one, the apostle sees a vision of some who during that thousand years were living and reigning with Christ. On this statement, let us askWhen? who? where? how? May be, on comparing Scripture with Scripture, we shall find more light thrown on this theme than we are prepared to expect.

1. When? “They lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” Whoever and wherever they were, it was apparently during the thousand years in which Satan was bound that they were living and reigning.

2. Who are they? Our text speaks of two classes. First, of the martyrs; second, of those who had refused to succumb to the spirit of evil. These two put together make up all the faithful ones. So that we may call them the blessed dead, whether they quietly fell on sleep after serving their generation, or whether they were hurried off to their home in a chariot of fire.

3. Where are they seen? On earth, say the great bulk of interpreters. “With Christ,” says the text. It does not indeed specify whether in heaven or on earth, but simply that they are “with Christ.” Is not that clear enough? The text indicates not that Christ came down to earth to live with them, but that they had soared upward to live and reign with Christ. The expression is akin to many more in the New Testament. “Today thou shalt be with me;” “Absent from the body, at home with the Lord.” Thus much, and this is all that is said. Oh! the refreshing invigoration which we get when we drink pure water from this crystal spring! “With Christ!” Enough! And this blessedness is theirs during a thousand years. Probably, though not necessarily, the same thousand years as those during which Satan was bound.

4. In what state are they seen? “the souls.” Not in their bodily forms, as if on earth, but in the disembodied state. In this state they are with Christ, realizing more fully than they could do here their priesthood and kingship with God. For they are seated on thrones, sharing with their Lord the government of the world. Here they resisted even unto blood (when needed), striving against sin; they would neither worship the beast nor his image, and now, far from this world, they are living with Christ. This is the first resurrection. Having attempted to clear the way by offering these preliminary remarks, we may now pass on to expound more fully the doctrine thus taught, in its bearing on and harmony with the rest of the Word of God.

I. HERE IS A VISION OF MEN FROM EARTHnot of men on it. “The souls.” So in Rev 6:11. That the expression refers here to men in what is called the disembodied state, scarcely admits of question. Not that we are taught in Scripture that the blessed dead are altogether “unclothed.” For the Apostle Paul, in 2Co 5:1-21., seems to teach that immediately following on death the soul puts on another vestiture, awaiting the resurrection, when it will put on over that the house which is from heaven. Whatever may be, however, their “clothing,” it is enough for us here to note that they are “with Christ.” This is just what we are taught in repeated Scriptures. Oar Lord Jesus “died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.” Thus we are taught that during that long interval which must elapse ere “the sea shall give up its dead,” those who are “absent from the body” are “at home with the Lord.” As one has well put it, “Here is no reference whatever to a visible manifestation of Christ, nor to a new kingdom on earth; nor is there any separation between one class of Christians and another, nor of the rising of the saints from their graves, nor of their living upon earth.” Letting the words of the text speak for themselves, we find them far removed from the amazing obscurity with which the incubus of interpreters has invested them. They are clear and distinct words, fitting in with other statements of God’s Word, teaching us that the souls of the blessed dead have already passed into a higher life: that there is no lapse in their blessed relationship to Jesus.

II. THE BLESSED SAINTS ARE SEEN IN A MORE ELEVATED SPHERE OF HOLY SERVICE. They are “living and reigning with Christ.” They share with him the government of the world. Here they were “kings and priests” unto God. But in the higher state of being the meaning of these names, and the glorious dignity they include, become far more manifest than when here below. They were priests even here, in leading men to God and in pleading with God for men. They were kings too, ruling men for Jesus; influencing the world’s thought by the presentation of truth; swaying men’s conscience by insisting on righteousness; and winning men’s hearts by the philanthropies of love. It was no merely empty title with which they were honoured. They had the dignity of a royal priesthood below. But they know more fully now its deep meaning. The Syriac Version significantly and suggestively reads, “They shall be, [nay] are, priests of God and of his Messiah, and they will reign with him the thousand years.”

III. THEIR PASSING UPWARD, IN DEATH, TO THIS HIGHER STATE IS CALLED THE FIRST RESURRECTION. And most intelligibly so. “Surely,” says the Rev. F. D. Maurice, “if one takes the words as they stand, they do not describe a descent of Christ to earth, but an ascent of the ‘saints’ to reign with him.” The thought of a real resurrection without a bodily rising from the grave ought to be no difficulty to those accustomed to scriptural phraseology. If, when a man passes from death to life, the phrase, “risen with Christ,” is not inappropriate, neither can it be so when he makes the transition from earth to heaven to be “at home” with Jesus. And when we find the apostle saying, “I saw the souls this is the first resurrection,” we do not feel at liberty to maintain that it is a resurrection of the body which is referred to. The first resurrection is the rising of the saint at death to a higher life in Christ, which will be consummated at the general resurrection when the thousand years have expired. To quit the bodyto be with Jesus? Is it hard to see why this is called the first resurrection? Nay, verily. You saw that friend of yours, breathing his last. He passed away. Your heart said, “He is not here; he is risen.” He is a priest and king to God, and he is gone upward to reign with Jesus.

IV. BLESSED EVEN IN THIS FIRST RESURRECTION, THE SAINTS AWAIT IN HOPE THE CONSUMMATION OF THEIR BLISS. The blessedness indicated here extends over the thousand years. While the Church on earth is enjoying its millennial calm, believers above are reigning in life with Jesus Christ. Knowing the blessedness of their first resurrection, they can look forward with joyful hope to their second. There is no reason to doubt that from their heavenly rest they watch the progress of the kingdom of Christ on earth (cf. Joh 8:56, Greek). They see Satan restrained, the saints possessing the kingdom, the wicked subdued, and righteousness advancing. They await with calm delight the revolutions of ages, for on them the second death will have no power; cycles on cycles of years can only bring new blessedness to them. “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in this first resurrection.”

V. THEIR GLORY WILL BE CONSUMMATED AT THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY. For this, as the ultimate outlook, the apostle says, believers are waiting (Rom 8:23). The first resurrection is that to a higher state of spiritual being. The second will be to the completed state of glorified life of both body and spirit. Then “all that are in their graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth.” Then there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and of the unjust. “Then, when the Son of God shall be manifested, will his saints also be manifested with him in glory.” This will be the fulness of their bliss.

VI. FOR THE WICKED THERE IS NO SUCH FIRST RESURRECTION. “The rest of the dead lived not again () till the thousand years were expired.” For the wicked, death brings nothing which can be called a resurrection at all. “The wicked is driven away in his wickedness.” After death they are not extinct. They exist. They are in Hades. But their life in the invisible realm is no “resurrection.” No such reward is theirs. They chose the paths of sin and selfishness, and they can but reap as they have sown. The statement of the text is, however, only negative. “They lived not again till,” etc. What their state is, positively, we are not told. And where Scripture is silent, so must we be. But at the far end of the thousand years the outlook is gloomy enough. When we are told that on those who know the first resurrection “the second death hath no power,” we see at a glance that just in proportion to the brightness of the light on one side is the depth of the shade on the other. They who are the Lord’s rise twice, and die but once. They who are not the Lord’s rise but once, and die twice.

Note:

1. We have reason for abundant joy over those friends in Christ who have passed onward and upward to be with the Saviour. What glorious accumulations of life are being garnered for us ready for the great harvest day! The true continuity of spiritual being is only manifested to us in revelation.

2. How loud should our praise be to the great Son of God, that through his resurrection we have ours! If it had not been for his, then “those who have fallen asleep in Christ would have perished.” But those who know him, and share his life, know also “the power of his resurrection.”

3. How immeasurably does the issue of a godly life repay any amount of suffering that fidelity has incurred! Those whom the apostle saw had, in some cases, been “beheaded for the Word of God.” But when the beheaded ones passed away “to reign with Christ,” what a change! Though “counted as sheep for the slaughter,” they were “more than conquerors.”

4. How awful the penalty of ungodliness, even if reckoned only by its loss! “They lived not,” etc. No. There is and can be in the unseen state nothing like “life” or “resurrection” to those who are godless. Being “without God,” they are also “without hope.” How completely the symbolism of the Apostle John accords with all the rest of Scripture as to the state of the dead!

Rev 20:7-10

Satan loosed from his prison after the thousand years.

During the millennial period on earth, while the departed saints are living and reigning with Christ, evil will be subdued and restrained, but by no means will it be extinct. Had it been extinct it could not have broken out again, nor would there be any need for the of the saints. The godless ones dispersed abroad, who will at the close of the thousand years break out afresh, are mentioned here under the peculiar names “Gog and Magog.” If any one will examine the account of the dispersion of the nations in Gen 10:1-32., he will find that one of Japheth’s sons was named Magog. “Magog,” says Josephus, “founded those that are after him called Magogites, but the Greeks call them Scythians.” There is little or nothing more to call attention to these people till we come to the Book of Ezekiel, where the name Magog is again used, but not in the sense of a people so much as of a land, the syllable Ma- being equivalent to land or district. Since, then, Magog is the land of Gog, Gog is the name of a prince supposed to rule over that territory; obviously, ideally so, since he is commander over a group of peoples covering a much greater space of ground than the Scythians, and also peoples who were at a great distance from each other, viz. the Scythian hordes, the Persians, the Ethiopians and Libyans of Africa, Gomer or the Cimmerians; Togarmah or the Armenians,. and the multitude that peopled the regions beyond them. Now, in Ezekiel we have a prophecy that, after the restoration of Israel, this Gog, with all his bands, shall come against that people, and that his onset shall only issue in his own destruction. We have so often seen and observed how largely the symbolism of the Apocalypse is based on the facts and symbols of the Old Testament, that it can be no surprise to us to find that it is so when we are approaching the theme of the Divine treatment of sin in its final onset on God’s people. Even the names Gog and Magog turn up again, not, however, as the names of a prince and his land, but as “the nations which are in the four corners of the earth,” who, after the millennium, wilt emerge from their retreat, and come in full force against “the camp of the saints.” The new uprising of evil after the thousand years’ rest is certainly not what we should expect or desire. But doubtless there is a Divine reason for permitting it so to be, or it would not be. Let us look at this matter closely in the light of God’s Word, and maybe we shall find more to instruct us on this theme than at first sight appears probable.

I. WE GATHER FROM THIS PASSAGE SOME HINTS AS TO THE STATE OF THE CHURCH ON EARTH DURING THE MILLENNIAL PERIOD.

1. There is no reason to doubt that the millennium, owing to the effective restraint then put upon evil through the Word of truth and the power of God, will be a period of very great blessedness. Seeing that Satan is the active agent in so much evil, it is almost impossible to avoid the conclusion that, when he is bound, a large proportion of evil will cease to exist, and a far more rapid diffusion of good will be the blessed result. During, or possibly even before this period, we may expect the restoration of the Jews, and, consequent upon that, the bringing in of the fulness of the Gentiles, and the fulfilment of the glowing vision of the sixtieth chapter of Isaiah.

2. There is no reason whatever to suppose, from any of the teaching of Scripture, that our Lord Jesus Christ will then be present on the earth in any other way than in the power of his Spirit. The chapter before us, which is supposed to teach the reign of Christ with his risen saints on earth, teaches only, as we have already seen, that the departed saints are seen living and reigning with Christ.

3. It is equally clear that the millennium will not be a period of unmixed good, nor will it be a time when the saints can dispense with the . Compared with things as they are now, the earth will be still and at rest; there will be a sabbatic calm, but it will not be heaven. Evil will be subdued, but far from extinct. The possibility of an outbreak will exist still.

4. There will also still be death in the world. The deathless state enters not in till the new heavens and the new earth appear, and Paradise is regained. Not till then will there be “no more curse.”

5. The Church will still have to be prepared for war. Obviously, if the state of things on earth during the millennium were one of universal righteousness, there would be no nations to be deceived. Still less can we suppose that, after the resurrection from the dead, the glorified saints are to go about, sword in band, to the holy war. It is a trial to our faith to read of an inrush of evil after a prolonged period of comparative calm. Scripture puts no such strain upon us, however, as that which is involved in the pre-millennial theory, viz. that, even after Paradise is regained, Satan will rush in and lead on in person the hosts of evil to a final attack.

II. WHAT DO WE GATHER FROM SCRIPTURE CONCERNING THIS ONSET OF ILL AFTER THE MILLENNIUM?

1. It is necessary. There is a little word in the third verse of this chapter of which we are too apt to lose sight. It is the word “must.” “After that, he must be loosed a little season.” Must! Why? We are not told. But we ought to take note of the word “must” for all that. What this hidden necessity in the government of God may be for the permission of such a disaster, is all dark to us. But we believe it, because the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

2. It will be a fierce onset. It will be after the old kind, by “deception” (verse 8). What will be the special form of deceit he will use we are not told, and conjecture is useless. But it will be so successful that, with a strange unanimity, a great host will band together, and attack the saints of God. We do not dream of a material struggle, but one resembling that which we are waging every day with principalities, with powers, with the world-rulers of this darkness.

3. It will be a restricted struggle. Satan will be bound by time even when loosed as to space. The same Hand that bound retains its power even when the evil one is loosed. Not even at the worst of times is the world given over to the devil, No! nor ever will be. Even when the water floods are at their height, and the billows are angry, Jehovah rides upon the storm.

4. It will be for a little season. Not only restricted, but within very narrow limits. The conflict may be sharp, but it will be short.

5. It will be suicidal. Satan will overshoot the mark, and fall into his own snare. He aims at deceiving the nations, and succeeds in leading them on to a guilty war; and lo! when engaged therein, we read that “fire came down out of heaven, and devoured them.”

6. The struggle will be even serviceable to the Church; for not only will it reveal more and more the majesty of God in defending his own cause, but it will end in the hurling of Satan to a lower depth than before. In Rev 12:9 we read that the devil was cast down to earth. In Rev 20:3 he is cast into the abyss. But in Rev 20:10 he is cast into the lake of fire. This would seem to mean extinction, if such a conclusion were not forbidden by the closing phrase of the tenth verse. What it means we dare not presume to say, except that it certainly conveys the impression that his power for evil over mankind is brought to an end. Hence:

7. The struggle will bethe last. If the reader has followed the plan of the book and our exposition of it, he will have noted how one after another of the foes of God and man are destroyed. There were four.

(1) The dragonSatan.

(2) The beast.

(3) The false prophet.

(4) Babylon the great.

We have noted the fall of the fourth, the third, the second. Only the first was left, and now he is thrown into the lake of fire. After this, no foe is seen outside of man. Only men have now to be dealt with, and these have, whether they be good or bad. “So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord; but let them that love thee be as the sun when he cometh forth in his might!”

III. WHAT ARE THE RELATED TRUTHS TO WHICH THIS PASSAGE POINTS US?

1. In the light of the views of the millennium and of what is to follow, two sets of apparently conflicting passages fall into place. There is one set which indicates that, as the result of the first coming of Christ, all the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord; there is another set which indicates that there will be a fierce outbreak of evil before our Lord shall come. It is no small confirmation of the correctness of an interpretation of this passage if thereby apparently conflicting statements fall in place. The binding of Satan, which was and is effected through our Lord Jesus Christ, has become more and more stringent as souls are plucked from his grasp; and we are to see a time of peace and calm when he will be even more completely bound than he is now. But after that there is to be the new onrush of evil, so that before our Lord shall come a fiercer conflict than has ever been known will be fought, ere the great struggle shall be completely at an end, and then the Lord shall come. So that we can at once look forward to the fulfilment of the seventy-second psalm as the result of the forces already at work; and yet see the harmony of that with words that declare that “that day shall not come, except there be a falling away first; .. and then shall that wicked one be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and destroy with the brightness of his coming.”

2. We see that there are two ways in which evil is being dealt with. That of removal, when souls are being renewed; and that of restraint, when evil beings are kept within prescribed limits. And both these ways of working are going on now, and will do during this millennial age. If it were not for these renewals of souls, no such time of calm could ever come in; and if it were not that there is much evil slumbering, as it were, that is only restrained, obviously it could not rush forth again. However much we may wonder at evil breaking out once more, even on the post-millennial view of our Lord’s coming, yet on the pre-millennial view it would be impossible, since there would be none. And so severe is the pressure of this upon pre-millennialists, that one of them ventures on the supposition that God wilt create some wicked men for the purpose out of the slime and the mire!

3. Be it ours to take heart as we get a fresh glimpse of the Divine plan, viz. that however oft the conflict with evil and the evil one may be renewed, yet in every case the issue is that of the defeat of evil, and its banishment to a lower depth of disgrace than before. “Who hath ever hardened himself against God and prospered?” “Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker!”

4. Finally, what God will ultimately do with evil and the evil one, no one can positively say. We do not find the possibility of extinction shut out. At the same time, it is by no means so clear that such will be the issue that we feel warranted in saying it will be so. In our homily on the after state of the ungodly, we deal with this question as concerns man. Here we have to do with it as regards Satan. We think that no one can help seeing that his fate is here set forth as that of utter, hopeless, final defeat. But we demur to the phrase, “eternal torment,” as so appliedyea, more, we eschew it, on two grounds:

(1) That our English word “eternal,” as now understood, goes far ahead of the expression, “to ages of ages.” The English word means an infinite duration; the Scripture phrase points to indefinite duration. In the former case an ending is negatived; in the latter no end is disclosed.

(2) The word “torment” has a gross, material, carnal significance. It is used in the narrative of Dives and Lazarus, and in the symbolism of this book. It is a material figure to indicate spiritual issues. Where there is rebellion and final impenitence, there must be defeat; and where there is detent, there must be “weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth.” There will be nothing contrary to perfect equity in the fate of the evil one; we may be quite sure of that. And we are such inadequate judges of the guilt of anyyea, even of our ownand of what a righteous penalty requires, that it is far better for us that we should leave the matter in the hands of God, knowing that he will do only what is right, than that we should know beforehand what the precise issue will be. Surely it is not without reason that we sayWe can rest more completely in uncertainty than in a certainty, when we rest absolutely in God. He will do what is right.

Rev 20:11-15 (compared with Rev 22:12)

“The day of the Lord.”

The several enemies of the ChurchSatan, the first beast, the second beast, and the harlothave one by one passed away from view. Now only men remain to be dealt with, both good and bad. It is necessary for us to avoid a confused blending of themes, as well as too frequent reiteration. We shall, therefore, pursue the following plan (which, indeed, is that required by the Apocalypse itself): We shall first deal with three themes common to all: the day of the Lord; the resurrection; the judgment. Then we shall see what light Scripture throws on the destiny of each; studying first the doom of the ungodly, and then the glory of the new heaven and the new earth. The topic of our present homily isThe day of the Lord. Inasmuch as our exposition of this and kindred themes can be valid only as it accords with the general tenor of the Word of God, we must ensure a wider basis on which to rest our unfolding of this stupendous theme than can possibly be found in this symbolic passage alone. If we group three other passages with it, our course will be clearer. The first is one which follows very shortly on our present one, and is in the twelfth verse of the last chapter of the Apocalypse. The second is that declaration of the Apostle Peter in Act 2:17-21, The third is the passage of the Prophet Joel, on which the apostle based his declarations concerning the “great and terrible day of the Lord.” In combining the three we shall therefore be locating the second advent just where it is set in this book, and indicating its purposes in harmony with the whole tenor of Scripture.

I. ALL PARTS OF SCRIPTURE CARRY FORWARD OUR THOUGHTS TO A GREAT DAY. The Apocalyptic word, in Rev 22:12, is but the final setting of a truth which pervades the whole of Scripture. “That day,” “the great day,” “the day of the Lord,” “the great and terrible day of the Lord,” “the day when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven,” “the last day,” “the harvest,”these and many other such phrases are found. Enoch prophesied, “Behold, the Lord cometh,” etc. Job declared, “He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.” Asaph sang, “Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence.” The preacher said, “God shall bring every work into judgment.” The prophets cast their glances forward far beyond the first appearing of our Lord. Isaiah, Hosea, Joel, and the rest. Our Lord, in the three several stages of his teaching, declares the same. When in the flesh, he spake of the time when he should come in his glory. He inspired Peter, Paul, and John to write of his reappearing. And all but his last word in the Apocalyptic unfoldings is, as it were, the final seal upon all this: “Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.”

II. THE TIME IS FIXED FOR THE COMMENCEMENT OF THAT DAY. “I come quickly.” This was said eighteen hundred years ago, and our Lord is not come yet. But “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years,” etc. Time is not counted only by the ticks of a dial, but by the growth of men. The second coming is, according to the Apostle Peter, the event which is at once to consummate and close this aeon. Paul tells us, “Now is the day of salvation;” and “He hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world,” etc. The Prophet Joel tells us, “In those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations.” So we find in the New Testament that the receiving of Israel once more shall be followed by the Bringing in of the fulness of the Gentiles. These two great issues are to be witnessed before the end cometh. As the world is not moving on blindly without any definite end at all, so neither is it moving on without a Divine foresight and purpose as to when or how the end shall come. “The spirit of the living creature is in the wheels; The wheels are full of eyes.” Towards this momentous point all things are tending. To the last the world will seem indifferent thereto. “As it was in the days of Noah so shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.”

III. STARTLING SIGNS WILL HERALD THE APPROACH OF THAT DAY. Our Lord and his apostles were very clear on this matter (Mat 24:1-51.; Act 2:1-47.). Nor was the Prophet Joel, among others, less so (Joe 2:31; Joe 3:15; comp. also Hag 2:1-23. with Heb 12:1-29.). There is room for wide differences of opinion here as to whether all these expressions signify extraordinary and marvellous natural phenomena, or rather great convulsions in the ecclesiastical and political spheres. Possibly both are intended, Moral and physical crises and epochs have often coincided, and may again. In Humboldt’s ‘Kosmos’ no fewer than seventeen instances are given of remarkable natural phenomena similar to those described in Scripture, some of which occurred at great crises in national life or in the world’s history.

IV. A VAST ASSEMBLAGE WILL BE GATHERED ON THAT DAY. What a vision before the mind’s eye when we look at the Apocalyptic words! “To give every man;” “Every eye shall see him; … We must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.” See also the Prophet Joel’s words, “Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision;’ where the term “decision” is from a word that denotes a threshing instrument, by which the wheat is separated from the chaff; and the word “multitudes” is from one that signifies “a hum,” and brings vividly before the mind the confused noise of a vast crowd. Crowds on crowds! One living, surging sea of human souls. A threshing process is being carried on, and “He shall separate them one from another!”

V. THE LIFE WORK OF MEN WILL BE FINISHED ON THAT DAY. “To give every man according as his work shall be.” Not his works, as if they were isolated details; but work, as if it were a definite whole. Even so. The work is as the man is. On the side of good or of evil, as he has taken his stand, there will his work be ranged. “Ye did it unto me,” “Ye did it not unto me,” are phrases so comprehensive as to include and to classify all moral acts whatsoever. And however doubtful it may have seemed at life’s earlier stages, on which side any one might be ranged, no doubt will be possible when wheat and tares alike are ripe at the great harvest day. As we have shown in an earlier homily, we can know men by their fruits. God knows them by their tendencies. And when tendencies have developed to issues, the righteousness of God in judging accordingly will be made manifest. For

VI. A RIGHTEOUS RECOMPENSE WILL BE AWARDED ON THAT DAY. “To give every man according as his work shall be.” Here we have the distinct statement of the meaning and object of our Lord’s second adventa meaning and an object so momentous, that we cannot dislocate this reappearing without seriously affecting our conception of the whole plan of redemption. If we look at our Lord as coming to bring in a regeneration which the gospel hasdesignedlyfailed to achieve, our views of our duty and of the glorious gospel will be very seriously lowered. But it is not thus that Scripture locates the great day. It is the decisive day, the day of ripeness, the day of separation, the day of final award (cf. Rev 22:12). Then God will judge the secrets of men. We shall all be made manifest before the tribunal of Christ.

VII. RESULTS WILL CONTRAST AS WIDELY AS CHARACTERS ON THAT DAY. “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” Every man will receive in his body the things done, whether good or bad. “The heavens and the earth shall shake, but the Lord shall be the Hope of his people, and the Strength of the children of Israel.” On one side we read that the wicked “shall be punished with everlasting destruction,” etc. On the other, “He shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe.” So that it is easy to see the reason why, on the one hand, the second coming of our Lord is “the blessed hope,” while on the other it is “the great and terrible day.” It will be to a man glorious or terrible according to the attitude of the man towards his God and Saviour. There is a day coming that shall burn as an oven, when men will “return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.”

VIII. THESE RESULTS ARE FINAL. So far as the disclosures of the Word of God are made, the horizon is bounded by these two issuesglory to the righteous, condemnation to the wicked. On the questionWhat do these severally mean? we treat afterwards. But the dread aspect of finality which characterizes the varied passages of the Word of God which speak of the doom of the wicked, precludes us from askingWhat lies beyond these disclosures? Where Scripture bounds its testimony, we must end our thinkings, for the one and sufficient reason that thought has no further basis on which to act. For our part, we can affirm neither the endlessness of future punishment, nor annihilation, nor restoration. “But,” it may be demurred, “the ultimate issue must be one or the other.” Possibly so. But even if it be so, it does not follow that we can tell any individual soul how it will be with him. If we be asked again, “Why can you not affirm either?” we replyWe cannot affirm restoration, because many passages seem to us to preclude it. We cannot affirm annihilation, because it loses sight of the fact that, according to the usus loquendi of Scripture, there may be existence in a state of death. We cannot affirm the endlessness of punishment, because:

(1) That would be affirming the tremendous doctrine that sin will last as long as God lasts.

(2) The assertion would go beyond the necessary meaning of the phrases used to imply duration, which onlyso far as evil is concernedindicate indefinite rather than endless duration.

(3) It would also ignore the fact that the strongest phrases in the Word of God for duration, and those which involve endlessness, are all on the side of good.

But while we refrain from asserting the absolute endlessness of future punishment, we do affirm:

(1) That God has not shown us an end to it.

(2) That every moment a sinner continues to harden his heart against God, he is doing what he can to make repentance an impossibility.

(3) That if a man resists Divine love here, no one can show what is to make him more yielding hereafter.

(4) That every man will be dealt with by God in absolute and unswerving equity. Whatever may be any individual theory, all these four last-named positions are absolutely certain. Objection: But how about the heathen world? What will be the condition of the men who have lived in pagan darkness? Will they necessarily be lost because they have had less light than others?

We reply:

(1) No; not necessarily. The Scripture again and again teaches that men’s salvation does not depend on the measure of light God saw fit to send them, but on the use which they shall have made of the light they had.

(2) We have no doubt whatever that before this great decisive day comes, every child of man will have been brought into direct contact with the claims of the Lord Jesus Christ, for acceptance or rejection; and that no soul ever reaches the crucial point of its probation till such is the case (cf. 1Pe 4:6). How could there be a common basis of judgment if some had never heard of Jesus? Our Lord will not come till he has all things in readiness to judge the living and the dead.

IX. Finally, IT BEHOVES EVERY MAN TO PREPARE FOR THAT DAY. Whatever may be obscure as to the time or place in which these tremendous scenes will be enacted, there is quite enough of clearly revealed truth respecting it to give men urgent reasons for preparing to meet their God; and to make pastors and teachers passionately earnest in setting before their hearers the solemnity of the destinies which loom before every man. Just as each atom of matter is related to every other, so has each moment of our time a bearing upon the last, the supreme, the decisive day. Every day we are piling up thoughts, words, deeds, which take their place for good or evil in the fabric of character; and as is character at last, so will be the award.

“Oh, to be ready, ready for that day,
Who would not fling earth’s fairest toys away?”

Rev 20:11-15

The resurrection from the dead.

This paragraph is an amazingly compressed eschatology. We have already studied the Scripture teaching on “the day of the Lord” which it opens up to us. We have now to look at the dread incidents which will mark that day. One of these is indicated by the words, “I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them.” We will, with these words as our center point, survey the doctrine in the light of the general tenor of Scripture.

1. AT THE COMING OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST THERE WILL BE A GENERAL RESURRECTION FROM THE DEAD. There is nothing in Scripture to lead to the conclusion that there will be two bodily resurrections. Those which are mainly supposed to teach it do not. Others teach precisely the contrary.

1. There are two passages which are among the principal ones that are adduced for the doctrine of two bodily resurrections, one of the saints, and afterwards of the wicked.

(1) The first is Rev 20:3. This we have dealt with in the homily on Rev 20:4.

(2) The other is 1Th 4:16, which is looked at by some as if it taught that the dead in Christ should rise first, and the dead out of Christ afterwards. But the antithesis is not between the dead in Christ and other dead, but between the dead in Christ and those who are living at the coming of the Lord. First, the dead; then we who are alive.

2. Other passages leave distinctly on the mind the impression of one resurrection, not of two; e.g. Joh 5:28; Mat 25:41; Act 24:15; Dan 12:2. We are pointed to one day or time, whether Scripture speaks of the righteous, or of the wicked, or of both.

(1) Of the righteous (2Th 1:10; Heb 9:28; 1Jn 2:28, 1Jn 2:29; 1Jn 4:17; Php 1:10; Php 3:20, Php 3:21).

(2) Of the wicked (Rom 2:6; 2Pe 3:7, 2Pe 3:13).

(3) Of both (Mat 7:21-23; Mat 10:32, Mat 10:33; Mat 13:30, Mat 13:42, Mat 13:43; Mat 16:27; Mat 25:1-46.; Act 17:31; Rom 2:6, Rom 2:16; Rom 14:10; 1Co 3:12-15; 2Th 1:7-10). It is scarcely too much to say that it is impossible to explain all these passages except on the supposition that there is to be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and of the unjust. There is, however, another passage, which, if possible, is more decisive still, viz. Joh 6:39, Joh 6:40, Joh 6:44, Joh 6:54. Here it is four times stated that the resurrection of the believers shall take place at the last day, which could not be if that of the wicked were separated from it and appointed for a later period. There will be one resurrection from the dead.

II. WHAT WILL THE RESURRECTION BE? Granted that it will be of all the dead (Joh 5:28): what is meant by it? We replyIt will be a resurrection of bodies.

1. The bodies of the righteous will rise (Php 3:21; 1Co 15:43; Rom 8:11, Rom 8:23).

2. The bodies of the wicked will rise. The dead will rise with bodies which will be according to character, and which will contain within themselves provision for joy or woe. Query: Have we any clue in Scripture as to the relation which exists between the body that is laid in the grave and that which will rise from it? We replyNot any direct clue; but we have a very clear statement of an apostle in 1Co 15:36-38, concerning four well-known principles and methods of God in the natural world; and if we apply these, as he would have us do, to the doctrine in hand, we shall find many difficulties cleared out of the way. The four facts are these.

(1) There can be no rising without a previous sowing and decay.

(2) The body that is sown is not the body that shall be.

(3) Yet to every seed there is its own body.

(4) The relation between the two is a secret in the mind of God.

“God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him.” If these are borne in mind and carried out to their legitimate issue, they will leave us no difficulty in the matter save the one, that we do not know the whole of anything.

III. How WILL THE RESURRECTION BE EFFECTED?

1. By the power of God (Mat 22:29).

2. By the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ (Joh 5:28, Joh 5:29; Php 3:21).

3. By the energy of the Holy Ghost (Rom 8:11).

4. Angels will be the attendants and instruments (Mat 13:39-41; 1Th 4:16).

If we here do little more than quote Scripture, it is because that is all that we can do. We know nothing more about the resurrection than we are told by our Lord and his apostles. We cannot forget that the Redeemer, in his memorable reply to the Sadducces, in which he showed them that their blundering over the doctrine arose from ignorance of Scripture, also pointed out in what the real glory of the resurrection consists, viz. not in the reproducing of like flesh and blood, nor in the repetition of an earthly life, but in the raising of the entire man to a life of nobler energy, in which it would be possible for him to realize the full meaning of the words, “I am the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob.” He who was their God would be to them all that a God could be, and would raise them up and present them to himself in all the perfection of a complete and glorified manhood.

IV. ON WHAT GROUND MAY OUR BELIEF IN THE RESURRECTION SECURELY REST? There is one ground which is sufficient in itself, viz. the testimony of Jesus Christ and his apostles. Well aware are we that this is an age of revolt from authority. Or, rather, it is supposed to be so. And men think that they require clear proof from actual experiment before they believe. But a little close examination will dispose of this self laudatory theory. For first, if the proof of x be direct and personal, based on his own trial, to him the issue is knowledge, not faith. And second, unless his own proof can be repeated or actually is repeated by others, they must accept another’s finding on faith in him. And so it is in the entire scientific realm. There is no man of science that does not owe to the experiments of others ninety-nine hundredths of all his knowledge. In other words, the great bulk of scientific knowledge rests on the authority of others. There are three kinds of authority which will stand as long as the race lasts.

(1) That of personal proprietorship.

(2) That of adequate knowledge.

(3) That of intrinsic and self-evident truth or worth.

With regard to the resurrection. The Lord Jesus Christ, as Lord of all, has authority of the first-named order. His apostles, as taught by the Holy Ghost, have authority of the second order. Hence the question between faith and unbelief regarding the resurrection ceases to be one of the surrender of authority as a ground of faith, and becomes merely one of the transfer of authority. Are men prepared to accept as authorities on this matter men who ask them to disbelieve the resurrection, because science can give them no information respecting it? We, for our part, challenge men to produce more trustworthy testimony on any matter, than that of our Lord and his apostles concerning the resurrection. If asked, then, for the ground on which we believe it, we would reply:

1. The Lord has assured us of it (Joh 11:23)

2. He regards it as a part of the trust committed to him (Joh 6:39, Joh 6:40).

3. He has led the way by his own resurrection (1Co 15:17).

4. He has declared his will that his people shall follow him to glory (Joh 17:24).

5. The completion of his own mediatorial work demands it (l Corinthians 1Co 15:29 -82; 1Th 2:19; Col 1:28; Jud 1:24).

V. WHAT WILL FOLLOW FROM THE RESURRECTION? (1Co 15:14, “Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire.”) The bodies of men before the resurrection were, so to speak, held in the grasp of death. The spirits of men were in Hades, i.e. in the invisible realmthose of the blessed in a state of happy rest and honour in and with Christ; those of the ungodly and unbelieving under the guard of Christ, with a view to the great, the decisive day, ushered in by the resurrection. When the mighty voice of the Son of God shall wake the dead, then Death shall resign his hold of the bodies, and the invisible world must open its gates for all its occupants to quit those mysterious realms. Thus Death will be dead. And the invisible realm will be vacant. Both will have served a purpose in the development of the Divine plans, but they will be no longer. They will be “cast into the lake of fire.”

VI. WHAT USES HAVE BEEN MADE OF THE DOCTRINE OF THE RESURRECTION? Perhaps few doctrines have suffered so much as this from the meddling and muddling of man. And in part, at any rate, it is owing to this that it has been so misused. Yet not altogether to this cause must we attribute such abuse. For the doctrine is confessedly so mysterious, that the proud heart scorns it. It is so fraught with terrors to the ungodly that the wicked tremble at it. (See Sir Samuel Baker’s conversation with an African youth on the resurrection; Dr. Moffat’s with an African chief upon it.) It is very remarkable that we have in Scripture illustrations of no fewer than seven ways of treating this doctrine.

1. Some denied it altogether (1Co 15:12).

2. Some declared that it was past already (2Ti 2:18).

3. Some made it a plea for putting forth curious questions (Mat 22:28).

4. Some mocked (Act 17:32).

5. Some postponed the consideration of the matter (Act 17:32).

6. Some believed (1Pe 1:3-5).

7. One, at least, with a touching blending of faith, fear, and. common sense, was unable to formulate the doctrine, but reposed implicitly in the Lord Jesus Christ (cf. Joh 11:26, Joh 11:27, “Believest thou this?” etc.). We admire the answer of Martha, in which she seems to say, “Yea, Lord, I believe it, because I believe thee, though I scarcely understand what it means!” Happy they who, with extreme difficulty in formulating the doctrine in detail, can fall back in loving faith in him in whom it centres, and who “will make it plain.” As that excellent man, Dr. Clerk Maxwell, said, shortly before death, “It is but a very little of pure truth that we can reach; but what a mercy to be able to say, ‘We know whom we have believed!'”

VII. BELIEVING THE DOCTRINE, WHAT OUGHT TO BE ITS PRACTICAL POWER?

1. It has a gladsome side. Herein:

(1) Let the believer rejoice (Col 3:3, Col 3:4).

(2) Let the Christian worker gather from it a holy stimulus, and keep it in view in all his teaching of Jesus Christ (Col 1:28, Col 1:29; 1Th 2:19, 1Th 2:20; 1Co 15:58).

(3) With this great crisis in view, let the hearer of the gospel remember his responsibilities (Heb 13:17).

(4) Let all Christian people see to it that they abound in the work of holy living (1Jn 2:28; 2Pe 3:14).

2. It has, moreover, an aspect of unspeakable solemnity. (Rev 1:7; Joh 5:28, Joh 5:29.) To rise from the dead to confront the Judge of all, in an unprepared and unpardoned state, how terrible!

The Lord grant that we may find mercy of the Lord in that day!

Rev 20:11-15

Judgment; or, the opening of the books.

Following on the resurrection is the judgment. In connection with this, we read that before the face of him that sat upon the throne the heavens and the earth fled away. This may include the final conflagration. But what the phrase actually means, no man is in a position adequately to judge. Such passages as Psa 102:26, Psa 102:27; Mat 24:35; Mat 19:28; Heb 1:12-14; 2Pe 3:7, 2Pe 3:10-12; 1Jn 2:17, prepare us to expect vast changes. “If there is any analogy between what has been and what is to be, there may yet be another catastrophe on the surface of the earth by virtue of which present forms of life will cease to be, and give place to others of a higher order than ever earth has known.” Now, the Bible presents to us a moral development. Science shows us physical development. And we are led, by comparing both together, to the conclusion which we have before expressed, that as in the past so in the future, moral and physical events will synchronize, and that when the earth is ripe for geologic change it will also be ripe for a moral one. Planting our feet firmly on the words which the Holy Ghost teacheth, we sayThere cometh a great decisive day, as tremendous in its moral and spiritual revelations and issues as it will be august in its physical changes. We recognize Divine disclosures concerning the latter as well as concerning the former. There are Divine disclosures to reason in the stone book of nature, and Divine declarations to faith in the written revelation. Where science ends revelation carries us forward, and while the former forecasts the re-preparation of the stage for further action, the other reveals the action which is to take place on that stage. Science brings to view natural law; revelation, a series of laws equally firm and sure; even those of a moral government superadded to physical control, and of a redemptive work inserted into a moral administration. There is a day coming when the working of these varied sets of laws will culminate. In the “economy of the filling up of the seasons” things are kept in store against that day. It is very remarkable to find such vast events indicated in so few words as we find here. But the fact is that all physical charges arc but subordinate to the supreme moral and spiritual issues which are pending. On these we at once proceed to dwell.

I. “THE GREAT DAY” WILL PROVE AT ONCE A CLIMAX OF HISTORY AND A REVELATION OF CHARACTER. Its bearing on the human race is indicated by the words, “day of judgment;” in which term there are included:

1. The appearing of mankind before God.

2. The manifestation of character.

3. Approval or disapproval.

4. Recompense or penalty.

“It has for a long time been disputed whether the judgment of the world will be an external, visible, formal transaction, or whether the mere decision respecting the destiny of man; the actual taking effect of retribution is represented under the image of a judicial proceeding, like what is common among men.” The latter opinion would have more on its side if it were only in such a symbolic book as this that the latter is suggested. But the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments combine in presenting the judgment as a vast solemn last assize.

II. THE ENTIRE ADMINISTRATION OF JUDGMENT IS IN THE HANDS OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. (Joh 5:22, Joh 5:27; Act 10:42; Act 17:31; Rom 14:10; 2Co 5:10; Php 2:11.) He is the Head of the human race, both by his original position as Son of God, and by his assumed position as Son of man. He “both died, and rose, and re-lived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.”

III. SCRIPTURE TELLS US WHO WILL BE CONCERNED IN THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE JUDGMENT DAY. Devils (Jud 1Jn 1:6; 2Pe 2:4; Mat 8:28). Men (Rom 2:4-11), including pagans, Jews, Christians, nominal and real. All (Rom 14:10). None will elude the judgment of God (Rom 2:3). “Every one shall give account of himself” (Rom 14:12).

IV. WE ARE ALSO TOLD WHAT WILL BE JUDGED.

1. Deeds (2Co 5:10).

2. Words (Mat 12:36, Mat 12:37).

3. Thoughts (1Co 4:3-5).

4. Secret things (Rom 2:16).

5. “Every secret thing” (Ecc 12:14).

“There is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known.”

V. MEN WILL BE JUDGED ACCORDING TO THE LIGHT THEY HAD; i.e. according to the use they made of the light God had granted them (Rom 2:11-15; Mat 10:15; Mat 11:21-24; Luk 11:31, Luk 11:32; Luk 12:47, Luk 12:48; Act 10:34, Act 10:35). The principles here laid down are those of most manifest equity, and we are quite sure that there will be nothing contrary thereto in the sentence of God. The late Dr. Lawson, of Selkirk, was once asked by a flippant young man how he could think that any, such as Plato and Socrates, would be lost because they had not heard of Jesus Christ. He replied, “If it please God in his mercy, and through faith in his Son, to take you and me to heaven, and that we shall find there Socrates and Plato, I am sure we shall be glad indeed to meet them; but if we shall not find them in heaven, I am also sure that the Judge of all the earth will be able to assign a good reason for their absence, and that none in heaven will be either able or willing to dispute either the justice or the wisdom of his sovereign arrangements.” We may also add that Scripture not obscurely intimates that every soul will, before the dread day comes, be brought into contact with the Lord Jesus lot acceptance or rejection; and those who followed conscientiously the dimmer light will surely accept joyfully the clearer. Certainly the Judge of all the earth will do right.

VI. WHERE IS THE RECORD OF THE ACTS, WORDS, AND THOUGHTS WHICH WILL BE DISCLOSED AT JUDGMENT? In “the books.” What are these? Who can tell? We would reverently suggest:

1. There is that unerring recordthe memory of God. To the Divine mind everything is present (Psa 139:1-24.). By him nothing is forgotten. All the manifold and complicated currents of human thought, the varied fluctuations of human wills and impulses, the maze of human design and plan, past, present, and future, are all laid.open to his searching glance. Not one passing thought eludes his notice or escapes from his memory. In his mind is a complete and permanent photograph of every soul.

2. Then there is our own memory. Judging from the collection of facts from which Science essays to draw her conclusions, nothing ever drops completely from man’s memory. A word, a look, a sound, a song, a feature, a locket, a hair, may recall deeds and thoughts of a generation past. Let but the barriers which imprison memory be removed, as they seem to have been in the case of many persons near death, and the whole of one’s life may rush back in an instant, and reveal the man to himself in a way that shall either make him dumb with horror or inspire him with joy.

3. If this be so, then the memory of others must be a permanent record of a large part of our lives. For if our memory records the impulses we give, it would seem also, by parity of reasoning, to be a record of the impulses we receive. Thus the power exerted by us over others, and by others over us, creates indelible impressions on their minds and ours, so that their “books” and ours mutually supplement and confirm each other. “You cannot meet a stranger in the streets, nor utter a word in your remotest solitude, nor think a thought in your inmost heart, but lo! this recording angel has noted it down upon the tablets of your soul forever” (Macleod).

4. Science itself suggests wondrous disclosures in this direction. The great mathematician Babbage, in his Bridgewater Treatise, remarks, “The whole atmosphere is one vast library, on whose pages are recorded all that man has ever said or woman whispered.” The air, the light, are ever the bearers of our deeds and words. “It is probable,” says Coleridge, “judging from the facts presented in medical records, that all thoughts are in themselves imperishable; and that if the intelligent faculty should be rendered more comprehensive, it would require only a different and apportioned organizationthe body celestial instead of the body terrestrialto bring before every human soul the collective experience of its whole past existence. And thisthis, perchance, is the dread book of judgment, in the mysterious hieroglyphics of which every idle word is recorded.”

5. And then there will be another recordin the countenance of the man. The spirit forms the face. Even here, “it is not in words explicable with what Divine lines and lights the exercise of godliness and charity will mould and gild the hardest and coldest countenances, nether to what darkness their departure will consign even the loveliest. For there is not any virtue the exercise of which even momentarily will not impress a new fairness upon the tortures; neither on them only, but on the whole body.” The work of grace reforms the countenance. The work of sin deforms it. To a sufficiently keen observer, a man’s face is a living book in which his character may be read. Yea, it is even so. “Books” in abundance are every moment having entries made therein from which the character and desert of each can be clearly read at last. So much so is this the case, that it is far easier to see how ruin impends than how salvation is possible, with such a long catalogue of sins as must attach to every man’s life. Knowing as we do that in the physical world there is no forgiveness of sins, it is impossible, without Bible teaching, to see how salvation ever can be inserted into the condition of a sinful man. This naturally leads us to another inquiry

VII. WHAT WILL BE THE ISSUES OF THE JUDGMENT? These will be twofold.

1. Eternal life. (Comp. Mat 25:31-40; Rom 8:33, Rom 8:34; 1Jn 4:17; 2Ti 4:8; Rev 2:10; Rev 3:5.) Scripture is very clear as to the issues of the judgment in the case of the blessed. There is, in fact, one sentence in the paragraph before us which indicates the joyous aspect of the judgment to them. “Another book was opened, which is the book of life” (cf. Isa 4:3; Luk 10:20; Php 4:3; Heb 12:23; Php 3:20). This book of life includes all the saved. Every one of them is written there. The Father’s name is written on their foreheads. Their names are written in the Father’s book. And this is emphatically a book of grace. Without the redemptive scheme of Divine love, there never would have been any such book at all. Nor should it be left unnoticed that it is called in Rev 13:8 and Rev 21:27 the Lamb’s book of life. The names recorded there are of those who have been redeemed by his blood, and who are his purchased possession. These shall be welcomed by him to the everlasting kingdom “prepared from the foundation of the world.”

Difficulty (1): Difficulties may here occur to the minds of many; such as these: It it be a matter of revealed truth that acts, words, and thoughts shall be brought forth to light, and if the sins of the believer in Christ are thus brought to view and exposed before all, will not that interfere very materially with the joy of the saved? Reply:

(a) It is not surprising if, when we attempt detail, we soon get beyond our reach in dealing with themes so vast.

(b) In this case, however, whatever sin comes out to light, does so as that which is repented of on the one side, and forgiven on the other. So that

(c) even thus the testimony would be borne more vividly to the renewing and forgiving grace of God.

Difficulty (2): We read in Joh 5:24 that he that believeth shall not come into judgment; and yet we read elsewhere, “We must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ:” how is this? Reply: Believers, with others, will be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ; but their manifestation will be that of pardoned and of sanctified men, whose guilt is cancelled and whose sin is removed. Surely, when this is taken into account, the difficulty ceases. There will be no such judgment as involves condemnation.

2. On the other side, the issue will be condemnation. The terrible word “Depart!” sums up all hell. What further remarks we have to offer on the after state of the ungodly we reserve for the next homily, observing here only that cannot mean anything less than “an adverse verdict;” and what that may involve, as a final sentence from the lips of the King of kings, we pray God we may never know!

Note: That scenes so solemn as the one put before us in this paragraph are meant to tell mightily upon us, and that they ought to do so, we cannot question, however incapable we may be of realizing all the details thereof. Any one or more of the following applications may well be earnestly pressed on the conscience by pastors and teachers.

1. Let every believer keep in view the judgment day, with anxious desire then to be approved of the Judge (1Jn 2:28).

2. Let us endeavour more fully to realize the fact that we are perpetually under the scrutinizing gaze of him “with whom we have to do.”

3. Let us regard every action as a laying up of treasure or of wrath against the great revealing day (Rom 2:5; 1Ti 6:19).

4. How intensely momentous does a pastor’s or a teacher’s work appear in view of that day (Heb 13:17) It is not to be wondered at if at times the weight of responsibility is more than he knows how to bear.

5. The responsibility of those who hear the Word is obviously correspondingly great. It also is implied in Heb 13:17.

6. None should forget that there is a Divine, a gracious meaning, in the prolonging of the “day of salvation.” The promise and the menace are not forgotten. God is not weak. Neither is he indifferent. He is “long suffering towards us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” With a view to this his goodness is drawing men now. He waits to be gracious. But we have no reason for thinking that he will wait always.

Rev 20:11-15

The second death: the lake of fire.

“This is the second death, the lake of fire.” Few of our readers, if any, are likely here to lose sight of the symbolic style of the Apocalypsea style which, indeed, so largely pervades it, that if there were not other passages bearing on like themes and couched in different phraseology, its interpretation would be impossible. And even with the aid of the plainer words, the theme before us is so vast, so dread, so fraught with terror, that for our part we scarcely know how to write upon it or even to approach it. Nor even now can we pretend to do more within the space at our command than to lay down some seven distinctly revealed lines of Divine teaching concerning the future state of the ungodly. When these seven lines are put together they will be found to include all the main teachings of the Word containing so dread a theme. We regard it as needless to do more at this stage of the exposition than to remind the reader of the point we have reached in the grand unfoldings of this book. The resurrection is past, the judgment has been set, men have been adjudged each one according to his works. And it is from this revealed point of time that we now start. May the writer’s pen be guided, and his heart inspired in a holy and a trembling awe, as he now essays to point out the results of the Judge’s solemn word, “Depart!”

I. AT THIS POINT THE REVEALED PERIOD OF PROBATION FOR THE RACE CLOSES. It is very clear, from the apostolic explanation in 2Co 6:2 of the phrase, “a day of salvation,” that the present gospel day is thereby intended. This is the day of salvation, in which mercy may be obtained. To this day there is a limit. “After that thou shalt cut it down.” The vine dresser could not ask for any further postponement of the act when fruitlessness was decisive and final. We are not in a position to look at the meaning of the great decisive day in relation to the government of God until we understand the Scripture doctrine of human probation. We know that nations, empires, and cities have a day of probation. So have Churches. So have individuals. Their probation may close even before their natural life ends. It was so with Judas. The line, however, which marks the close of probation is not a temporal one, but a moral one. The close of probation is reached when the state of fixedness in sin is reached. Hence we have but to expand the conception of that of individuality to that of universality to see how completely this accords with the frequent reference in Scripture of “the harvest day.” Whoever lives in the habit of resisting God is hardening himself into a state of fixed unfruitfulness. And the last day will be the decisive day of treatment, because it is the consummation day of character.

II. “THE DAY OF SALVATION” WILL BE FOLLOWED BY “THE DAY OF JUDGMENT.” The latter may be a period as prolonged as the former. During “the day of salvation” grace reigns. In “the day of judgment” absolute and unswerving equity will mark the Divine procedure in every case (Rom 2:6-16). And, as we understand the meaning of that, in its bearing on our present theme, we would express it thus: Whosoever refused grace, when it was freely offered him in the day of salvation, will be dealt with according to equity when that day is over. There will be nothing of vindictiveness, harshness, or excess. Nothing in degree or duration which will not be known by the individual conscience, to be absolutely right.

III. AT THIS DAY OF JUDGMENT THE RIGHTEOUS WILL NO MORE BE MINGLED WITH THE WICKED. The two solemn words, “Come!” “Depart!” will mark a difference in lot corresponding to difference of character, and also a separation of the one from the other. And it may well be made a theme of prolonged study to inquire into the meaning of the several words which express the character of those “without.” There are no fewer than thirteen terms by which they are indicated. “Dogs,” “sorcerers,” “whoremongers,” “liars,” “the fearful,” “unbelieving, … idolaters,” “murderers,” “fornicators,” “abominable,” “those who worship the beast,” “those who worshipped the dragon,” “those who are not in the Lamb’s book of life.” Such is the terrible list. On earth they met with the righteous, but were never confounded with them; in the next they shall neither mix nor meet (cf. Mat 7:23; Heb 12:14). We know that such characters may be met with on earth now; what they will be is but the continuation of what they are (see Rev 22:11).

IV. FOR SUCH THE JUDGMENT DAY WILL INVOLVE A LOT WHICH IS THE TENFOLD ANTITHESIS OF LIFE. Let the student reverently compare the several terms which are set over against the word “life”:

1. Life and punishment (Mat 25:46).

2. Life and judgment (Joh 5:29).

3. Life and wrath (Joh 3:36).

4. Life and the second death (Rev 20:14, Rev 20:15).

5. Life and destruction (Matt, 2Co 7:13, 2Co 7:14).

6. Life and the lake of fire (Rev 20:15).

7. Life and hell fire (Mat 18:9 ).

8. Life and everlasting fire (Mat 25:41).

9. Life and the unquenchable fire (Mar 9:48).

10. Life and everlasting contempt (Dan 12:2).

What a burden for men to unfold to their fellow men”the terrors of the Lord”! Yet this must be done. Who can gauge the contents of these phrases?

V. THIS RENDERING TO EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS WILL BRING APPALLING SUFFERING. It is very common for those who wish to prejudice their hearers or readers against the doctrine of future punishment, to use more frequently than any other phrase the words “eternal torment.” This is exceedingly unwiseand worse, as an examination of the use of the word in the New Testament will show. Twice is this word, however, used in the symbolic language of this book. What was its intention? It is used to denote the tormenting process inflicted on accused ones, to extort from them the confession of the truth. May there not be herein a deep truth indicated, that even the perishing ones will clearly see, yea, and confess, that God is righteous? But if we are asked the questionIn what will the sufferings of the lost consist? we reply:

1. We earnestly trust we may never know.

2. So far as Scripture teachings guide us, we cannot avoid seeing that six features will mark them.

(1) There will be the unrest of spirit under the just wrath of God.

(2) There will be a sense of defeat.

(3) Of loss.

(4) Of exclusion

(5) Or remorse.

(6) Of hopeless and unavailing regret at the thought of what might have been (cf. Joh 3:36; 1Co 15:25; Mat 25:28; Luk 13:28; Mat 27:4; Mat 25:10; Luk 13:24; 2Th 1:8, 2Th 1:9; Mat 7:23; Heb 10:26, Heb 10:27).

VI. THERE IS A DREAD CONSENSUS OF CONVICTION AMONG EVANGELICAL PREACHERS AND TEACHERS ON THESE STUPENDOUS THEMES. Startling as such an assertion may be, when the controversies on future punishment are borne in mind, it is one which we venture to make, and one which we deem of infinite importance. We are well aware of the different theories on this subject. There is what is called the “orthodox” theorythat the punishment of the wicked will be endless. There is the annihilation theory. There is the future restoration theory. There is the theory of the relativeness of revelation with regard to time. It is no part of our purpose here to defend or to criticize either. Our space will not permit of it. The books mentioned in the footnote will furnish the needed material for this. Our aim is rather to indicate how much common ground there is for evangelical preachers and teachers to occupy in proclaiming “the terrors of the Lord.” The following statements will show how far earnest representative men in the several leading divisions of eschatolegical thought travel together on similar lines. They teach:

1. That when the Son of God comes as the Judge of all mankind, the time of probation for the human race will have closed.

2. That then every eye shall see him, and that all things will be in readiness for a righteous administration of judgment.

3. That all men will then appear before the tribunal of the Lord Jesus Christ.

4. That every man will, ere then, know of his own personal relation to the Lord Jesus, and that he is to be the Judge of all mankind.

5. That the final state of every soul will depend on its attitude to the Lord. Jesus Christ.

6. That men will be sentenced, not according to the light God saw fit to send them, but according to the use they have made of the light granted to them.

7. That the Lord Jesus Christ, as an omniscient and unerring Judge, will sentence every man; that this sentence will be according to truth; and that it will be the outworking of moral laws that are in operation now, which are like their Author, “the same yesterday, and today, and forever.”

8. That the measure of punishment will be according to the measure of guilt.

9. That for the righteous there will be joy and honour unspeakable, which will never end.

10. That for the wicked there will be irremediable loss, unutterable woe, for a duration of which no man can gauge the extent, accompanied with a depth of remorse that no tongue nor pen can describe.

11. That for those who reject Jesus Christ in this life there will be no such thing as makng up lost time, and that they will never attain to the blessedness they would have reached if they had received Christ in this, the accepted time. Their time once lost is lost forever, and the corresponding loss of blessedness will never be retrieved.

Surely here is enough, and more than enough, for focussed power in the pulpit in the presentation of the revealed truth of God on the future destiny of the ungodly. And when we see what a dread aspect of finality there is in such words as “The door was shut;” when we remember how repeatedly the trumpet call Now is sounded; when we know that these are spoken of as the last days, and that the day of judgment is “the last day;” when there is no hint of an offer of mercy in the next life to those who have rejected Jesus Christ in this; when we know that, by continued sin, men are getting into a state of hardness in which no means known to us can possibly reach their consciences;to shrink from the presentation to them of their risks would be gross unfaithfulness. There is no need to indulge in the excessive statement that sin will last as long as God lasts; there is no need to indulge in flaming descriptions of material fire and of bodily torture; there is no reason for so setting things as to make one’s moral nature and conscience revolt therefrom; in fact, there is every reason for not doing anything of the kind. For, within the lines indicated of a widely spread agreement among men of diverse conclusions as to the ultimate issue, the facts of life are so real, the drift of evil is so manifest, the penalties on sin are so stern, the Word of God is so clear, the commission to the Christian teacher is so direct, and the importance of commending ourselves to every man’s conscience is so vast, that with the most careful accuracy, measured statement, calm reasoning, pungent appeal, impassioned fervour, we are boundeven weepingto plead with men in Christ’s stead, to “be reconciled to God,” reminding them that

“‘Tis not the whole of life to live,
Nor all of death to die.”

There isthere isthe second death, even the lake of fire.

HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY

Rev 20:6

“The first resurrection.”

“Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection.” It is a common remark that we are to learn much concerning the Divine administration in the kingdom of heaven by observing the laws of his administration amongst men now, in this present life. And there can be no question that God deals with men here by a system of special rewards. He holds before us, as we enter life, prizes of greater or less value, that we may be stimulated to diligence in the road along which these prizes lie. But it has been too commonly thought that in the kingdom of heaven there is nothing of this kind. That there one reward awaits all alike, and one penalty all to whom penalty is appointed. And the effect has been to make imperfect, unspiritual, and self-indulgent Christians all too content with themselves and their condition before God. They have what they are pleased to call faith, which in them is only a lazy reliance upon what the Lord Jesus Christ has done; and as they believe, certainly, in justification by faith, they deem themselves justified, and on the way to be glorified; and what can any one need more? But the subject which our text brings before us, and the whole teaching of God’s Word, is utterly subversive of this popular and plausible but pernicious belief. It teaches that there is a “prize” of our high calling of God in Christ Jesus; a being, if faithful, first in the kingdom of heaven, or, if unfaithful, last; a being greatest or least; a crown of life; a recompense of ten cities as well as of five; and much also of the same kind. Especially is this doctrine of special reward to the faithful confirmed by this truth of the first resurrection. Let us inquire

I. WHAT DOES IT MEAN? Surely that which it seems to saythat the faithful servants of Christ, of whom those who had been beheaded for his sake are named as representing all the rest, shall rise from the dead, and live and reign with Christ for a vast period, here called a thousand years, whilst all the rest of the dead shall have no resurrection until this period be past. Therefore there is a first resurrection for the saints of God, and another, inferior and later one, for all the rest of the dead. So this Scripture seems to teach. But many have affirmed that, however much it may seem to teach this, in reality it does not. For, it is affirmed:

1. That there is nothing else like it in all the rest of Scripture. It stands all alone. But if it be really taught here, our failing to find it elsewhere will not excuse us from accepting it. We accept other doctrines even if declared but once. Take 1Co 15:1-58. Where but there shall we find not a few of the truths it teaches? And there are other instances beside. But we do not admit that it stands alone, not by any means (cf. infra).

2. That it is all metaphor, like the rest of the book. But all is not metaphor, and what is and what is not can be readily distinguished. The resurrection is not a metaphor.

3. That it means baptism. We read that Christians have “risen with Christ in baptism” (Rom 6:4; Col 2:12). Here, then, it is said, is the first resurrection. But St. John, in our text and its context, is speaking of men who have died, have been beheaded for Christ; the death is a literal one, so therefore must the resurrection be. If it were a spiritual death that were told of, then the resurrection might be spiritual also. And the living with Christ comes after death. How, then, can it be baptism?

4. Others, many, say that it tells of the thousand years or more which stretch from the fourth century to the fourteenth. At the beginning of the fourth, persecution by heathen Rome ceased, Rome herself adopting the Christian faith. For a thousand years after, her ministers and Churches, it might be said, lived and reigned. But then came the capture of Constantinople, and the establishment of the Turkish empire, and the dominance over so large a portion of the once Christian world of the Mohammedan imposture. Well, if Satan was “bound” during all that period wheneverso one would askwas there a time when he seemed more free? If that thousand years were the millennium, or like it, then may we be delivered from such another one!

5. The entire present dispensation. Reference is made to our Lord’s word as to the “fall” of Satan “from heaven;” as to his being “judged” and “cast out;” and it is said that this is Satan’s condition nowfallen, judged, cast out, bound, shut up in the abyss, reserved for condemnationand has been so ever since our Lord was here on earth; and that during all this period the faithful have lived and reigned with Christ. Again, we say, such interpretation makes a mockery of the millennium, and empties St. John’s words of well nigh all their meaning. Therefore, on the sound principle of interpretation that, when a literal meaning will stand in any Scripture, the meaning furthest from that is generally the worst, we accept that literal meaning, and the more so that the question

II. WHERE IS THE PROOF OF IT? is one that can be satisfactorily answered.

1. In the Old Testament there were many Scriptures which had led the Jews to the belief that for faithful Israel there was to be a special resurrection. Such texts were Isa 25:8; Isa 26:1; Eze 37:1-28.; Dan 12:1-13. And this belief of their resurrection when Messiah came was what St. Paul called “the hope of Israel.” And this general belief our Lord never contradicted, which he who said, “If it were not so I would have told you,” would assuredly have done. But:

2. The New Testament must, of course, furnish the larger proof. Our Lord perpetually speaks of the resurrection of the good and of the evil as of separate things. He tells (Joh 5:29) of “the resurrection of life” and of “the resurrection of judgment;” and in verse 24 he has said that believers “shall not come into judgment.” Here, then, is a resurrection with which believers can have nothing to do, and another which is specially theirs. Then cf. Joh 6:39, Joh 6:40, “I will raise him up at the last day.” This is several times repeated. But why, if every one is to be raised up at the last dayif that be the general resurrection, why is there this mark of distinction for “him” if there be none? We conclude there is a distinction. Another and a more glorious resurrection awaits “him” than awaits others. Then (Luk 14:14) the Lord speaks of “the resurrection of the just.” Why does he not speak of the general resurrection if there be nothing special for “the just”? He teaches us that there is. Again (Luk 20:35), he speaks of a resurrection for the children of God, who shall be equal to the angels, which is a resurrection “from among the dead” (), and for which they who shared in it needed to be “counted worthy.” But this is not the case with the general resurrection; therefore we gather that this is a special one. Then 1Co 15:22-24, where the order of the resurrection is given”every man in his own order: Christ afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming;” and then, after the great work of subjugating all things is accomplished”then cometh the end.” But with this we know is associated that resurrection of “the rest of the dead” of which we read in this chapter (1Co 15:12). See, too, in Mat 24:31. The gathering together of the elect is told of, and then afterwardswe know not how longthe judgment of the heathen, the nations, of which we are told at the close of Mat 25:1-46. See, too, Php 3:14. Now, “the resurrection from the dead” which St. Paul there speaks of as “the prize of his high calling,” and after which he strove, if “by any means he might attain unto it”for as yet he had not attained to it, and therefore he still pressed, as an eager racer, towards the goalthis resurrection could not be the general one, for he knew that he would rise again; nor either does it mean simply being saved, for he knew that he was saved already. It must mean, therefore, a special resurrectionthis of which our text tells; a prizethe prize, indeed. And we read of “a better resurrection” after which the saints of old strove. And Christians are called “firstfruits,” and “the Church of the Firstborn”expressions which denote priority and privilege such as the first resurrection declares. We hold it, therefore, to be no vain and unauthorized imagination which believes that in these remarkable verses St. John does teach what his words so evidently seem to affirm.

III. WHAT IS THE INFLUENCE IT SHOULD HAVE UPON US? St. John’s purpose, or rather the Holy Spirit’s purpose through him, was by this glorious revelation to do in an especial manner that which was the great design of the whole bookto comfort, strengthen, and inspire with holy courage the persecuted Church. And we can hardly imagine that it failed to do this. The imagery is taken from facts within their own experiencethe constitution of the empire, in which the varied kings who ruled over the provinces each contributed to the power and glory of the whole; and the priestly service in the temple with which they had long been familiar. The book is full of Jewish imagery throughout. The vision, therefore, assured to them that the lot of their faithful brethren the martyrs, and all of like mind with them, should speedily and wondrously be changed. Poor, persecuted, down trodden, the offscouring of all things now, they should be as kings; their dungeons they should exchange for thrones; their dreadful death for lifelife eternal, life with Christ. Vast capacity for ministering to the glory of the reign of Christ should be theirs, for they should be kings under him, their Lord. Constant access to his presence and the ministry of intercession for their brethrenthese, too, should be theirs, for they were also to be his priests. ‘Twas worth living for, worth suffering for, worth dying for, let the death come in what dreadful form it might. So would they feel and speak and act, and this was what was intended. “Strong consolation” they needed, and “strong consolation they had,” as God’s people ever have had and will have when placed in like circumstances. And for ourselvesfor the vision is for all Christ’s faithful ones as well as for the martyrswhat should be the influence of this doctrine of the first resurrection upon us? Surely we should “have respect unto the recompense of the reward.” If Christ have put this reward before us, we should have respect to it. Is it fitting, some may ask, that Christ’s servants should serve him with their eyes on the reward? Was it fitting that any reward which Christ promised to bestow should be without appreciation? Think what this promise is. It is not merely blessednessit could not but be thatbut it means kingship and priesthood. That is to say, dropping the metaphors, it means infinitely increased capacity for serving Christ and furthering his glory; it means, as his priest, constant access to his presence, and the duty and privilege of intercession for his people. Yes, the faithful now with Christ are serving him as they never could before. It is no indolent case in which they abide, but one of service as well as honour, in forms which as yet we cannot know. The kingdom of Christ is the better for what they do. “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister?” Nor can we doubt that the great functions which are involved in the idea of priesthood are theirs alsoto draw near to God and to intercede for the people. They who on earth were so fervent in prayer are they all at once stricken dumb there? No; they arc priests of Christ, and by virtue of that office they are intercessors. Is this a recompense of reward for which we need have no respect? Should it not rouse our energies and call forth our most strenuous endeavours? Holiness, conformity to the mind and will of God, is the condition of this blessedness. The rewards of Christ are not mere external things, but inward and spiritual possessions. Therefore to say that we shall be content with the lowest place in heaven, as many do say, may sound like humility and Christian meekness; but it means being content with less of likeness to Christ, less of his spirit, less of his love. Priority and privilege in heaven, the share in this first resurrection, are according to these things; and how can we be content with but little of them? It is not humility, it is not self denial, it is wrong to Christ himself, to be indifferent to this reward. Whilst low in the dust as regards yourself, have a lofty ambition in regard to this. Oh, then, seek, strive, pray, for this holiness of heart and life, that you may be of those blessed ones who have part in the first resurrection!S.C.

Rev 20:11-15

The final judgment.

Stripped of its imagery, this most solemn Scripture declares to us the truth which is found in records manifold. Those of the Bible. The confirmatory passages are everywhere throughout its pages, and especially in those which record the very words of Christ. The most dreadful things in the Bible fell from his lips. Those of the traditions of ancient and heathen peoples. Everywhere we find, as especially in Egypt, creeds which declare a final and awful judgment. Those of conscience. They tell of “a fearful looking for of judgment.” Read ‘Macbeth,’ and wherever any great writers have drawn true portraitures of men, the witness of conscience may be heard in them all. The imagery here is taken from the tribunals, and the procedure in them, with which the age of St. John was familiarthe august and awe inspiring paraphernalia of justice, the magnificent and elevated throne of the judge, the giving of the evidence, and the sentence. But underlying all this metaphor are such truths as these

I. THAT DEATH DOES NOT END ALL. This great transaction takes place when life is over, when this world is done with. Men, therefore, live on after death, or else they could not appear at this judgment bar. And that men do thus continue to live in their true real self, there is much evidence, beside that of Scripture, to show. The ancient Greeks disputed whether the relation of the soul to the body was that of harmony to the harp, or that of the rower to the boat. If the former, then, if you destroy the harp, you destroy the harmony it gave forth; and so, if you destroy the body, you destroy the soul too, and death does end all. But if the second, then the boat may sink or go to pieces, but the rower lives on still. And so is it with the soul. The bodyits boatmay sink into the depths of the grave, but the soul sinks not with it. Professor Huxley has affirmed that “life is the cause of organization, and not organization the cause of life;” and Tyndall has shown that dead matter cannot produce life. Life, therefore, must exist prior to and independent of matter, and therefore can exist after the material organization which it for a while animated has decayed. We are the same self conscious beings in old age as we were when in childhood, though our bodies have changed over and over again meanwhile. Death, then, does not end all; we live on, and so one demand of the doctrine of final judgment is met.

II. THAT THERE SHOULD BE RECORDS UPON WHICH THE JUDGMENT SHALL PROCEED. They are spoken of in this Scripture (verse 12) as “books.” “And another book, which is the book of life.” The books contain biographies, and therefore are voluminous. The “other book” contains but names, and therefore is but one. No biography is needed; nought but the fact that they believed in Jesus. But what is meant by the “books”? Simply that there are records of the soul’s life, which will be opened and read in the great judgment day. They are found:

1. In the souls of others. In the character we have helped to impress upon them. There is no one but what has written down evidence about himself on the souls of others. If we have helped them heavenward, that is there; if we have urged them hellward, that is there.

2. But chiefly in our own souls. We are always writing such record, and it may be read even now in the body, in the countenance, in the very way we bear ourselves before our fellow men. Character can be read now. It comes out at the eyes, in the look, the aspect, is heard in the tone of voice. But much more helps to conceal it. The restraints of society, the regard to the opinion of others, make men reticent and reserved and full of concealment of their real selves. But in the spiritual body it is altogether probable that the essence of the man will be far more visiblemay, in fact, be, as many have thought, the creator of its body, so that “every seed” shall have “its own body.” But on the soul itself its record will be read. Many a man can trace yet the scar of a wound, and that not a severe one, which he received thirty, forty, fifty, years and more ago. The ever changing body will so hold its record. And there are scars of the soul. Wounds inflicted on it will abide and be visible so long as the soul lasts. Like the undeveloped plate of the photographer, a mere blurred surface until he plunges it into the bath, and then the image comes out clearly; so our souls are now illegible and their record indistinct, but when plunged into the bath of eternity, then what has been impressed thereon will be distinct and clear. Then the image of “the deeds done in the body” will come out with startling but unerring accuracy. If man can find out means, as he has found, so to register the words and tones of a speaker that they can be reproduced years after, and whenever it is desired, is there not in that discovery of science a solemn suggestion that all our “idle” and worse “words” may be recorded somewhere, and be heard again when we thought they were forgotten forever? Yes, there are records. And

III. A JUDGMENT. “It is appointed unto men once to die, and after death the judgment.” “And they were judged every man,” etc. (verse 13). What do these Scriptures mean? Now, the Greek word for “judgment” is “crisis;” that is the Greek word, simply, in English letters. But what is more is that our word “crisis” does more accurately set forth the meaning of “judgment” than what is commonly understood thereby. When we speak of a “crisis,” we mean a turning point, a decisive settling as to the course which affairs will take. That is a crisis. But when we speak of “judgment,” the imagery of these verses rise up before our minds, and we think of an external judge, and a sentence that he passes upon us. Judgment, however, often takes place. How common it is to hear it said of a man who has passed through some great experience, “He has never been the same man since”! Great trials, disappointments, distresses of any kind, and great successes and wealth also, act as crises, turning points, judgments, to a man. They act like the watershed of a district, which determines which way the streams shall flow; so these great crises of a man’s life turn this way or that the moral and spiritual dispositions which dwell in him. They do much to settle him in a fixed habit of character, for good or ill, as the case may be. How much more, then, after “death” must there be “judgment”! Then, freed from all the restraints of life, from all that hindered the manifestation of what he really was, his nature now gravitates towards that side of spiritual character to which it has long been leaning, but from which it has hitherto been held back. It takes up its position according to its nature. If evil, with the evil; if good, with the goodfor in this case his name is found “written in the book of life.” It is ill for us to put off the idea of judgment until some far distant day, amid some unwonted scenes. God’s judgments are continually taking place, and every thought, act, and word is helping to determine to which side, whether to the right hand or to the left, our souls shall go.

IV. THE SENTENCE. It has been said that this judgment told of here is of the ungodly only, and that the book of life is mentioned only for the sake of showing “that their names are not there.” We cannot think this. Nothing is said about the sentence of any, only the final fate of the ungodly. “The lake of fire,” the “oven of fire” (Mat 13:1-58.), and similar expressions, are metaphors taken from the barbarous punishments of that age. To east men alive into fire was a fearful but not unusual punishment. Hence it is taken because of its fearfulness as a figure of the final fate of the ungodly. Evil character such as that into which they have settled is like a raging fire, and the blindness of heart and mind which attends such character is like “the blackness of darkness” itself. We may see men in hell today when filled with the fury of rage and passion; and, blessed be God, we may see others in heaven because filled with the peace of God. Heaven or hell is, in great degree, in a man ere ever he enters either the one or the other. They are in us before we are in them, and the judgment is but each man’s going to his own place. What solemn confirmation, then, do such Scriptures as that before us receive from observed facts and experiences of men in this life! What urgency, therefore, do they lend to the exhortation, “Commit thy way unto the Lord”! And how prompt should be our resolve to entrust the keeping of our souls unto Christ, so that in the great judgment after death they may go with Christ and his saints into eternal life! “Jesus, by thy wounds we pray, help now that our names may be written in the book of life” (Hengstenberg).S.C.

HOMILIES BY R. GREEN

Rev 20:1-10

The restraint upon evil.

Following most appropriately upon the foregoing description of a conflict, and the conquest by the truth and the power of righteousness, is a representation, in most significant imagery, of the restraint that is put upon evil by the prevalence of righteousnessthe chaining back the clouds of night by the rising sun. The spirit of evil, “the dragon, the old serpent,” “the devil and Satan,” is “laid hold” by “an angel coming down out of heaven,” and bound with “a great chain,” and cast “into the abyss,” which is shut and sealed. This is to be for “a thousand years;” after that “he must be loosed for a little season.” With as great distinctness as could well be employed herein is set forth

I. THE EFFECTUAL RESTRAINT OF THE POWER OF EVIL. It is here pictured as a single act. But we must read the history of the strife which is ever proceedingthe gradual leavening of the entire life of humanity by the principles and the power of the holy gospel. Whatever may be the oscillations between the probabilities of success and the danger of defeat, this picture must be held to declare the ultimate happy triumph of the true and good over the false and the evil. Satan is held in chains; his power is restricted. The heavenly holds back the earthly and the hellish. It is the comfortable encouragement to the patient, suffering toiler that the agency employed of God is effective. That binding and restraining every faithful servant must see to be now going on.

II. THE DURATION OF THIS RESTRAINT. The millennium”a thousand years”a long but definite period, now reigns; yet must we not forget the symbolical character even of the definite words of this book. No time must be affixed. It is a period of blessing, of rest, of rejoicing. The toils of the Church, and the patience of the suffering faithful ones, have, by Divine grace, become fruitful. Now in the world, permeated by the pure and lofty principles of Christianity, peace, truth, righteousness, reign; and by how much they prevail, by so much evil is restrained. In their supremacy is to be seen the complete chaining of the evil agents of an evil kingdom.

III. THIS PERIOD IS MARKED AS ONE OF TRIUMPH AND REJOICING on behalf of the faithful Church of Christ. Thrones are set, the faithful reign with Christ, and judgment over human conduct is given to thema significant indication that principles of righteousness are predominant, and that by them human life is adjudged. These are “blessed and holy;” they have priestly functions, they approach, they mediate, they are channels of blessing, they live to reign; they escape that second death which is the penalty of sin, from which they have been raisedthey partake in a first resurrection which presages another.

IV. To this happy period of the universal prevalence of Christian truth there succeeds A TEMPORARY RELAPSE. Like all human blessedness, even this has the signature of imperfectness upon it. It is historical, not imposed. But this is only temporary, “for a little time,” and issues in a final destruction of all tempting and evil powereven “forever and ever.”

In this the Church is to find

(1) encouragement to faith;

(2) motive for diligent labour;

(3) the most cheering assurances in times of discouragement and fear.

The truth shall ultimately prevail; the false, the foul, the vile, shall be restrained.R.G.

Rev 20:11-15

The final judgment upon evil conduct.

The scenes of the Book of Revelation are now approaching completion, and they present more definitely the characteristics of “the end.” Judgment proceeds on human conduct daily, but there is a final judgment, “the judgment of the great day,” when “we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God.” That dread day is now present to the mind of the seer, and before that inner eye, by a spiritual illumination, the solemn scene is depicted. It is pictorial, and, like the Lord’s own picture of the separating of the sheep from the goats, though it lacks the completeness of this teaching, it has aspects of the most awful grandeur. In the symbolical presentation the following dreadful features are prominent

I. THE AUTHORITY, SANCTITY, AND DREAD TERRIBLENESS OF THE DIVINE JUDGMENT. The symbol of the authoritative character of the judgment is represented in “a great throne;” its sanctity in the ever-present symbol of purityit is a “white” throne, “we know that his judgment is according to truth;” while the terribleness of the holy judgment is indicated in the assertion that the very “earth and the heaven fled away” from “the face” of him that sat on the throne.

II. THE UNIVERSALITY OF THE JUDGMENT. The symbol here approaches a terrible realism. The seer beheld “the dead, the great and the small, stand before the throne,” and “the sea” and “death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them, and they were judged.” The judgment is upon the “dead,” and it transplants our thoughts to the final issues of human history.

III. The judgment which is universal is also MINUTE AND INDIVIDUAL. “They were judged every man.” None escape or pass by. Every servant to whom the Lord has entrusted goods must give account of the same.

IV. The judgment proceeds UPON THE CONDUCT OF THE EARTHLY LIFE. “They were judged every man according to their works.” Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, “Every idle word that men shall speak they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.”

V. THE FINAL, TERRIBLE AWARD OF EVIL DOING. “If any was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire.” That this represents the termination of the present order of things is indicated by the destruction of death and Hades; the present, the temporary, is swallowed up in the final. One side only of the judgment is representedthat of the wicked.

Truly these awful scenes are not for the eye, but for the heart. No picture is permissible of any part of these unspeakable things. Men must take the terrible intimations, and ponder them in their hearts; and “blessed” is the man that so “reads” and so “understands the words of the prophecy of this book,” that he turns in lowly meekness to him who is the one and only Saviour of men, and seeks by his grace to walk “in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.”R.G.

HOMILIES BY D. THOMAS

Rev 20:1, Rev 20:2

The first scene in the moral history of redeemed humanity: the scene of moral struggle.

“And I saw an angel come down from heaven,” etc. No inspired book presents a greater scope for visionary and idle speculation than this Apocalypse. Here every imagination has the widest sweep for its wildest evolutions. Hence we have almost as many interpretations of its contents as we have expositors. One can scarcely pursue a more easy or certain path to popularity than by propounding some ingenious exegesis of this book. I intend going through the whole of this chapter and the first four verses of the succeeding one, in five analyses of homilies; because I think I discover there what seems admirably adapted for deep and practical moral impression. The nineteen verses may be fairly taken as an illustration of the moral history of humanity. They disclose no less than five moral scenes through which the redeemed portion of our race is to pass; namely:

(1) The scene of moral struggle;

(2) the scene of moral triumph;

(3) the scene of moral reaction;

(4) the scene of an awful retribution; and

(5) the scene of the final destiny of the good.

The firstthe scene of moral struggleis the one unfolded in these verses. This scene shows us two things.

I. THAT REDEEMED HUMANITY HAS A TEARFUL ANTAGONIST TO CONTEND WITH. This enemy is called “dragon,” “serpent,” “devil,” “Satan.” This highly symbolic language, applied to the great antagonist of the good, implies three things.

1. The actual existence of such an enemy. The names “dragon,” “serpent,” etc., must stand for something. They are the names of real beings, and cannot be supposed as used to designate the mere phantoms of the imagination. Most conclusive arguments for the existence of some mighty agent of evil, whose influence is world wide, may be drawn from three considerations.

(1) The universal belief of humanity.

(2) The opposite classes of moral phenomena. In the world we have error, selfishness, infidelity, and misery; and truth, benevolence, religion, and happiness. Can these be branches from the same root? or streams from the same fount?

(3) The general teaching of the Bible.

2. The personality of such an enemy. These are names of creatures having individual existence and attributes. The Bible always speaks of this evil existent as a person. It is far too great a demand upon our credulity to believe that the various inspired writers, from Moses to John, extending over a period of more than two thousand years, possessing various idiosyncrasies and attainments, and living under different economies, governments, and circumstances, could all fall into the common habit of speaking of evil as a person if it were only a principle. This, I say, is too much for our faith. Moreover, an evil principle implies an evil person. Sin is not some mysterious entity, separate from moral existence. Is sin an act? Then it must have an agent, Is it a motive? Motive implies thought, and thought implies a thinker.

3. The characteristics of such an enemy. “Dragon” stands as the emblem of power. Probably the leviathan described in Job 41:1-34. is of the same class: “Shall not one be cast down, even at the sight of him?” “Serpent” stands as the emblem of cunning and venom. “Devil” means accuser. “Satan” signifies opposer. This adversary of redeemed humanity, then, is mighty, crafty, and virulent. The New Testament is full of the doctrine that this being is the determined foe of humanity.

II. THAT HEAVEN HAS VOUCHSAFED AN AGENCY WHICH IS DESTINED TO MASTER THE ADVERSARY. “And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit [abyss].” Who is this angel that descends from heaven? The word “angel” both in Hebrew and Greek, means messenger. It is applied to impersonal as well as personal agents; and it is applied to evil, as well as good, personal agents. It is evidently used here to designate some good personal agent, for he descends from heaven, and descends from heaven to do battle with evil. The language applies preeminently to Christ, but refers also to every true religious teacher. Let the word “angel,” here, then, stand forevery true religious teacherincluding Christ and all his true servants; and we shall get a most clear and practical meaning from the passage. We have here two things about this true teacherthis angel.

1. His authority. He has the “key” of the bottomless pit. A key is the emblem of authority. Christ is said to have the keys of death and hell (Hades) at his girdle; and to his servant Peter he gave the “keys” of the kingdomthe authority to open the kingdom of truth, by true preaching, to Jew and Gentile. Every man who has the true spirit and power of a teacher, has the “key” or the authority to teach. He has a right to do battle with the enemy wherever he is found; whether in literature or commerce, Churches or governments, theories or practices. A true man has Heaven’s key in his hand for this work.

2. His instrumentality. What is the instrument employed? “A chain.” What is the chain? Iron, brass, adamant? No, no! These cannot fetter intellectthese cannot manacle soul. Nothing can curb or restrain the influence of Satan but Christian truth. What is meant by binding Satan? It does not mean the binding of his being or faculties, but the binding of his influence. He is to be bound, in the sense of limiting his sway, by closing up human hearts against him. As liberty binds the influence of slavery, intelligence the influence of ignorance, and religion the influence of infidelity, so Christian truth is to bind the influence of Satan. Every truth is a link in that mighty chain. The chain of Christian teaching is far too weak and short at present to restrain the force or measure the dimensions of Satanic influence.

This is the scene through which we are passing. All is battle now. For the subjugation of the common foe, let each forge some holy thought link for the all-enfettering chain.D.T.

Rev 20:3-6

The second scene in the history of redeemed humanity: the age of moral triumph.

“And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him,” etc. The first scene in the history of redeemed humanitynamely, the scene of moral struggleoccupied our attention in the last homily. The passage before us is a very glorious, though highly symbolic, view of the scene which will succeed itthe scene of moral triumph. This scene is, probably, many long centuries in the future; for as yet the great enemy of souls is the “prince of this world.” But prophecy, the tendency of Christianity, the victories which the gospel has already achieved, and the unequivocal assurances of God’s Word in general, all show that, however far off, the bright era will dawn on the world when the “will of God shall be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Stripping the words before us of their highly figurative garb, I discover four great features which will distinguish this glorious age.

I. THE ENTIRE OVERTHROW OF MORAL EVIL. Satan, the great adversary, is said to be cast into “the bottomless pit.” This figurative language suggests two thoughts.

1. That the great enemy will have lost his stand place in the world. His throne will have lost its foundation; he will not have a resting place for his foot in this period. What had been his stand place in the world? Error, prejudice, selfishness, evil passions, etc.; but these will have gone. He will have no fulcrum for his lever.

2. That the fall of the great enemy will be complete for a time. “Bottomless pit.” He will be sinking for ages. The more humanity progresses in intelligence, rectitude, and holiness, the more hopeless his condition becomes. As humanity rises, he must sink.

II. THE UNIVERSAL SOVEREIGNTY OF CHRIST. Christ is here spoken of as reigning for a “thousand years” (Rev 20:2). There are many who judge this passage “after the flesh,” give it a carnal and Judaic interpretation. They infer from it a personal manifestation of Christ, with all the appendages of a temporal dominion. I disclaim this, for two reasons.

1. The only true sovereignty is spiritual. Who have been the greatest sovereigns of the world? The men who have sat on thrones of gold, and ruled with the sceptre of force? No! it is not your Pharaoh, Ceasar, Alexander; but your Aristotle, Bacon, Milton, and Bunyan. Men who direct the thoughts of humanity are the real rulers. Christ is the greatest spiritual Sovereign, and his sovereignty is destined to increase.

2. A religious spiritual sovereignty over man is the great want of the race. He who rules the human mind, directs its faculties, energies, and feelings rightly, is man’s greatest benefactor. This Christ does in the highest and most perfect manner. Let every philanthropist, therefore, pray that his kingdom may comethat he may become the moral Monarch of all souls.

III. THE GENERAL ASCENDANCY OF GREAT SOULS. The world, hitherto, has been under the dominion of weak and wicked men. Its kings and heroes have generally been as small as their hearts have been corrupt. In this scene the great soul will be “on thrones,” and reign with Christ. The words suggest three things about the men who will then be in power.

1. They will be men who have passed through a spiritual resurrections. They had a part in the “first resurrection” (Rev 20:6). That a spiritual resurrection is here referred to is obvious, from three considerations.

(1) The idea harmonizes with the symbolical character of the whole book.

(2) The passage specially mentions “souls,” and not bodies.

(3) The New Testament represents the awakening of a new spiritual life in man as a resurrection (Joh 5:24-29; Col 3:1, etc.).

Indeed, the resurrection of the body is but a type of the resurrection of the soul; the resurrection of the soul is the true resurrection. That of the body is but figurative. Two ideas are implied in the resurrection:

(1) The resuscitation of an old moral life in manDivine love.

(2) The resuscitation of an old moral life by God himself. It is God’s work alone to raise the dead.

2. They wilt be men of martyr mould. “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” (Rev 20:4). The idea unquestionably is, not that the “souls” of the old martyrs who have long since departed will be brought back to this earth, but souls like theirs will exist in this age. Souls marked by invincible attachment to truth, by the most generous sentiments; Divine aspirations, and noble daring; feeling truth to be ever more precious than existence itself. This interpretation agrees with the interpretation which one is bound to give such scriptural language as that which speaks of the ministry of John, the ministry of Elijah, and the conversion of the Jews, as a “life from the dead.”

3. They will be men possessing exclusive ascendancy. “But the rest of the dead lived not again” (verse 5). In this glorious age there is no reproduction of those little and corrupt men who, in every age, have played the despot, both in Church and state. Your Herods and Caiaphases, your Henrys and your Lauds, will have no representatives in this glorious age. “The rest of the dead lived not again.”

4. They will be men raised forever beyond the reach of all future evil. “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power” (verse 6). Such men are delivered forever from all the influences and all the fears of Hades. What an age is this! Would it had dawned!

IV. THE EXTENSIVE DURATION OF THE WHOLE. “And shall reign with him a thousand years” (verse 6). If you suppose that this is literal, that ten centuries are meant, it is a long period for the continuation of one moral scene in man’s history. How short was the scene of primeval innocence! The scene of wickedness, too, is never long without being broken. Conscience is everlastingly breaking in upon, and disturbing, wickedness here. Ten centuries of unbroken holiness and peace for the world are a long period! But I am disposed to regard the period referred to here as much longer than ten centuries. A little interpretation would not agree either with the general structure of the book or with this passage. Nor would it fully meet the nature of the case. I therefore regard the period either as meaning three hundred and sixty-five thousand years, or some vast indefinite period of time. The Jews and other nations were in the habit of using the expression, “a thousand years,” to denote a period of immense duration.

1. This long period of holiness is a glorious set off against all the preceding ages of depravity and sin. When we think of the past ages of corruption, the millions who, from period to period, have passed away without a knowledge of the gospel, we are sometimes confounded. But all this may appear but as a few vibrations of a pendulum, when compared with the long ages of universal purity and peace. The lost, perhaps, will be as units to millions, compared with the saved.

2. This long period of holiness serves wonderfully to heighten our ideas of the grandeur of Christ’s work. Although the influence of Christianity as yet is confessedly limited compared with the widespread districts lying on all hands beyond its present reach, still no one who honestly looks at its past history will be disposed to deny that its conquests over the minds, systems, and institutions of humanity are unparalleled in the history of religions, and far out measure the appreciative faculty of the world’s greatest intellects. But, in the view of the effulgent ages before us, its past most brilliant achievements pale their fires. Hitherto its rays have only fallen in twilight dimness upon the summit of an isolated mountain here and there; but in the glorious time coming it shall flood the world in warm, cloudless, and life imparting light. Oh! let me learn, then, to estimate the greatness of Christ’s work, not by what he has done or is doing, but by those glorious achievements of his which prophecy has foretold. Let me not judge in this respect before the time. Shall I judge the husbandman just as he commences the cultivation of one of the hundred acres committed to his care? or the architect just as the scaffolding is reared and a few stones are brought together? Still less will I dare pronounce upon the work of Christ until in the great eternity I shall behold redemption finished.D.T.

Rev 20:4

Martyrdom a testimony.

“I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the Word of God.” Martyrdom is the subject of these words. The words suggest four facts.

I. MARTYRS ARE SOMETIMES MURDERED MEN. John saw the souls of those who were “beheaded.” All murders are not martyrdoms; all martyrdoms are murders. There has often been martyrdom, and still is, where there is no killing. There are sufferings inflicted on men on account of their conscientious convictions that are often as bad, if not worse, than death itself. There is slander, contumely, the loss of freedom, the destruction of rights. For a man to spend his life amidst social scorn, civil disabilities, and religious intolerance on account of his conscientious beliefs, is a martyrdom; his life is a protracted and painful dying. But thousands have been murdered, and that by every variety of method which Satanic cruelty could invent. Paul summarizes some of the tortures of ancient martyrdom. “Some had trials of cruel mocking,” etc.

II. MARTYRS ARE ALWAYS WITNESSING MEN. “Beheaded for the witness.” Indeed, the word means a witness. All witnesses are not martyrs, but all martyrs are witnesses. The man who dies on account of conscientious beliefs, whether they are right or wrong, hears witness to several things.

1. To the invincibility of the human will. The ablest metaphysical works cannot give you anything like the impression of the freedom and the force of that power in man which we call will, as one martyrdom. The martyr rises up against the powers of the world, and dares it to do the utmost.

2. To the force of the religious element. When religious convictions get hold of a man’s soul, whether the convictions be right or wrong, they invest him with an unconquerable power. The stake, the faggot, the fire, have no power to crush or to subdue him.

3. To the power of the soul over the body. Men who have had their souls filled with religious feeling become physically insensible to all the tortures and fires of martyrdom; they have sung in the flames. I say that a martyr, whether his religious convictions are right or not, is a mighty witness to these things.

III. MARTYRS ARE OFTEN CHRISTLY MEN. Those whom John saw were those who were “witnesses of Jesus, and for the Word of God.” I say often Christly men, for false religions as well as the true have had their martyrs. Who but God can tell the number of men that have been put to death on account of their fidelity to Jesus and the Word of God? In the first ages under Nero, Domitian, and Trajan, Christians were slain by thousands, and who but God knows the number of those whose blood in Christian Europe has been shed on account of their attachment to Christianity? These Christian martyrs were witnesses of something more than the invincibility of the human will, the force of the religious element, and the power of the soul over the body.

1. They bore witness to the sustaining grace of Christ. In the midst of their torturing agonies they gloried in their attachment to him. Their grim persecutors, when endeavouring to extort from them recantation of their faith, were answered in the same spirit as that expressed by the ancient martyr, “Sanctus Christianus sum.” They all “gloried in tribulation,” etc. They endured “joyfully the spoiling of their goods,” etc.

2. They bore witness against the lukewarmness of living Christians. The martyrs were earnest men.

IV. MARTYRS WHO ARE CHRISTIANS ENTER HEAVEN. John now saw the souls of “those who were beheaded” raised to immortality, and invested with imperishable dignities. Men whom the world considered unworthy to live, but of whom the world is not worthy, are welcomed into the Paradise of God. This fact should act:

1. As an encouragement to the persecuted Christian.

2. As a warning to persecutors. How much greater was Stephen than all the members of the persecuting Sanhedrin! How angelic his countanance, how calm his spirit, how peacefully he passed away into the serene heavens of love!D.T.

Rev 20:7-10

The third scene in the history of redeemed humanity: the age of moral reaction.

“And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,” etc. The long ages of earth’s millennial glory described arc run out. The harmony which had reigned through indefinite centuries is broken into tumult; the sun of absolute truth and blessedness, under whose genial and unclouded beams unnumbered generations had come and gone, getting new vigour and catching new inspiration in every successive step of their mortal life, is veiled in clouds again; the arch foe of humanity has burst his moral chainsis “loosed out of his prison,” and is once more deceiving the nations “which are in the four quarters of the earth.” There is a tremendous reaction. This age is here presented under a veil of imagery, if possible, more variously coloured and thickly folded than either of the preceding epochs already noticed. My work is not to describe the veil, but gently to draw it aside, in order to discover the great facts which lie beneath. Disrobing this passage of its highly symbolic garb, I discover three facts which mark this age of moral reaction.

I. THE REACTION IS BROUGHT ABOUT IN THE MANNER IN WHICH MANKIND HAVE EVER DEGENERATED. Let us mark the process.

1. Here is deception. “The nations” are deceived (Rev 20:8). Certain ideas, directly opposed to the eternal principle of truth, the settled conditions of virtue, and means of true blessedness, but at the same time most plausible to the reason, prompting to the lusts, and gratifying to the selfhood of the human heart, are put into circulation; men receive, follow them, and fall. Sin came first into the world through deception, and it has been propagated and nourished by it ever since. Men fall by error, and rise by truth. Hence the seducer and the Saviour alike deal with the judgments of men. Hell and heaven are acting on our world through thoughts; the one through the false and the other through the true.

2. Here is deception employed by Satan. “Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out [come forth] to deceive the nations” (Rev 20:7, Rev 20:8). Christ, who knows his entire history, has declared that he “abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him;” and that “he is a liar, and the father of lies.” He has filled the world with liescharged our atmosphere with liespolitical, social, moral, and religions. “Every man walketh in a vain show.” Who can “fathom the depths of Satan”? He “beguiled” our first parents; he prompted Ananias “to lie to the Holy Ghost.” He “hath blinded the minds” of men.

3. Here is deception employed by Satan, first, upon those who are most assailable, and afterwards through them upon others. “He goes out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters [corners] of the earth, Gog and Magog,” etc. (Rev 20:8, Rev 20:9). No one has been able to determine with certainty who Gog and Magog are. I am inclined to believe, with Bloomfield, “that no particular nations are meant, but that these are only names designating bodies of men inimical to the gospel.” Probably, through all the ages of the millennial period, there had always continued some disaffected towards Christ, some who loved darkness rather than light, some “Gog and Magog.” Upon these Satan now acted. By his suggestions he evoked their latent depravity, kindled into a flame the long-smouldering fires of their rebellion against heaven. The more evil there is in a man, the more accessible that man is to Satan, and the more susceptible to his influence. The more virtue in the heart, the stronger its safeguard. Hence he ever begins his work with the most assailablewith those who are morally the most remote from Christianity, who dwell “in the four quarters of the earth.” And through them he goes on to propagate his cause. From Eve he proceeds to Adam; from Gog and Magog he proceeds to the very “camp of the saints” (Rev 20:9).

II. THE REACTION IS OF A CHARACTER THE MOST THREATENING. There are two things in the passage which suggest this.

1. The vast number of its agents. Those whom Satan enlists in his cause from the “four quarters of the earth”these moral tribes, called Gog and Magog, constitute a great multitude, “the number of whom is as the sand of the sea” (Rev 20:8)a figurative expression indicating their numerousness. It is not necessary to suppose that these unbelievers had been numerous through all the centuries of the millennial times. Nor is it necessary to suppose that any genuine Christians had really and finally been tempted to renounce their principles. It seems to me highly improbable that a man whose nature has been thoroughly Christianized will ever finally degenerate into a life of sin. We may suppose that for many ages there were but few whose spirits did not flow with the clear and majestic stream of Christian truth and practice. If, however, at one time there were only a dozen, or even fewer, sinners among the teeming millions of saints, it is easy to see how they could multiply in the course of time, without causing any of the really good to apostatize. These twelve, we will suppose, become parents; their children, on the principle of filial love and dependence, will catch their spirit and be moulded by their example; they, in their turn, become parents; and thus, according to the common law of generation, in a few years these few may multiply to thousands. Amongst the angels, who do not probably derive their existence from each other, between whom there is not this relation of parent and child, there is not this characterpropagating power.

2. The anti-Christian aim of its agents. “And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city” (Rev 20:9). The idea, symbolized, I take to be thisthey made efforts to assault the most central and vital part of religion. They sought, perhaps, to argue away the being of God, the doctrine of human responsibility, the necessity of mediation, and the existence of a future life of rewards and punishments. There are minor attacks which unbelievers make upon Christianity, but the attempt to disprove these fundamentals is a blow aimed at the most vital partit is to compass “the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city.”

III. THE REACTION TERMINATES IN– THE EVERLASTING DESTRUCTION OF ALL ITS AGENTS. “And fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire,” etc. (Rev 20:9, Rev 20:10). From this language we learn the following truths:

1. That there is in the universe of God a distinct local scene, where the wicked of all classes are to receive their righteous retribution. This is implied in the expression, “lake of fire.” There are other scriptural expressions which imply it; such as “Gehenna,” “furnace of fire,” etc. Reason would also suggest this.

(1) All existence implies place. You may think of space apart from being, but you cannot think of being apart from space. You think of an infinite being in connection with infinite space, and finite being in connection with limited locality.

(2) A wicked existence implies a miserable scene. Antecedently, we should infer that the outer scene of a moral being’s existence would resemble his moral character and mood. This world was made for innocence, and it is beautiful, etc. It seems fitting that a dark, inharmonious, deformed spirit should have a sunless, tumultuous, and horrid world as its residence.

(3) Moral beings, of directly opposite sympathies, habits, and aims, as are sinners and saints, imply separate local homes. There is a mutual repugnance to each other’s society here, and it is natural to suppose that, when retribution comes, they shall have their “own place.” We know not where this place is, whether in the depths of the earth or in regions far beyond this planet. There may be, perhaps, in some district of the creation, a scene without a streak of beauty, a gleam of light, or a drop of goodness, on which justice frowns and thunders.

2. That the retribution which the wicked will endure in this scene will be of a most terrible description. “Fire and brimstone” (Rev 20:10). The allusion here is most likely to the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 19:24-28); fire is the emblem of suffering (Zec 13:9; 1Co 3:13-15; 1Pe 1:7); brimstone is the emblem of desolation (Job 18:15). Nothing will grow on any soil that is covered with sulphur. The Bible employs other figures equally terrible, such as “outer darkness,” “blackness of darkness,” “prison,” etc. Here, then, is the end of the enemies of Christ. Redeemed humanity, henceforth, will be freed from “Gog and Magog,” from the beast and the false prophet, and from the devil, the prince of darkness, forever and ever. Glorious day! Though countless ages in the future, this faint glimpse of thee adds energy to our faith and brightness to our hope! But how long will this reaction continue? We have an answer to this in the third verse of the chapter, “And after that he must be loosed for a little season.” Its duration will be short compared with either of the two following periods:

(1) Compared with the preceding period of almost universal holiness. The period of millennial holiness continued for a thousand yearsi.e. either three hundred and sixty-five thousand years, or some immense period of duration. This period of reaction is called a “little season” in relation to that.

(2) Compared with the succeeding period of perfect holiness to be enjoyed by the redeemed in the heavenly world. In the twenty-second chapter of this book it is said of the state and residence of the redeemed that “there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign forever and ever.” “Forever and ever.” What arithmetic can compute the ages contained in this “ever and ever”? All the preceding periods in the world’s history are but as “little season” compared with this “ever and ever;” less than an hour to the geological cycles that are gone; less than a spark to the central fires that light and warm the unnumbered worlds of space.D. T.

Rev 20:11-15

The fourth scene in the history of humanity: the age of retribution.

“And I saw a great white throne,” etc. There was one fact common to all the preceding epochs through which redeemed humanity had passedthey were all probationary, all connected with the overtures of mercy to the guilty, and the means of spiritual purity, blessedness, and elevation for the polluted, unhappy, and degraded. But the probationary element, which had run on through all dispensations from Adam to Christ, and through all revolutions from Christ to the consummation of the world, is now closed; its last ray has fallen, its sun has gone down to rise no more. Hence on, every man shall be treated according to his past works, and shall reap the fruit of his own doings. The morning of retribution has broken. The magnificent passage before us points to the period designated in Scripture “the day of God,” “the judgment of the great day,” “the revelation of the righteous judgment of God,” “the eternal judgment.” It may be well to premise at the outset, in order to guard against the tendency of associating too much of what is merely material and human with the circumstances and transactions of this period, that this retribution will literally involve the judiciary circumstances here portrayed. I have heard and read discourses on this subject, which impress the mind more with a kind of Old Bailey scene, than with the great moral facts which distinguish that period from all preceding times. It is true that we have here the mention of the “throne” and “books” common to human courts; but it should be remembered that inspired writers, in accommodation to our ordinary habitsay, and laws of thoughtreveal to us the unknown through the medium of the known. What mind, in sooth, can receive any new idea without comparing it with the old? We judge of the unseen by the seen; we learn what the testimony of others unfolds to us through the medium of what we have already beheld. Thus “the day of judgment’ is set forth under the figure of ancient courts of judicature, which in general features agree with all the modern courts in the civilized world. There is the judge on his seat or throne; there is the prisoner arraigned; there is the investigation carried on through “books” or documents; and there is justice administered. Now, there is quite sufficient resemblance between these courts of human justice and the judicial transactions of God at the last day, to warrant the former being employed as illustrations of the latter, without supposing a “throne” or a “book” whatever. For example:

1. There is the bringing of the Judge and the accused into conscious contact.

2. There is the final settling of the question of guiltiness or non-guiltiness, according to recognized law.

3. There is the administration of an award to which the accused is bound to submit. Let us now proceed to notice a few facts in relation to this retributive period.

I. THIS RETRIBUTIVE PERIOD WILL DAWN WITH OVERPOWERING SPLENDOUR UPON THE WORLD. Observe:

1. The character of this manifestation. He comes on a throne. A “throne” is an emblem of glory. It is generally valuable in itself. That of Solomon consisted wholly of gold and ivory; but its glory mainly consists of its being the seat of supremacy. Hence ambition points to nothing higher. The people have ever looked up with a species of adoration to the throne. But what a throne is this! “His throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire.” It is a “white throne.” Human thrones have often, perhaps generally, been stained by sensuality, injustice, and tyranny. The throne has sometimes become so loathsome that the people, roused into indignation, have seized and burnt it in the streets. But this is a “white throne.” There is not a single stain upon it. He who has ever occupied it “is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” It is a great “white throne.” Great in its occupant: “He filleth all in all.” Great in its influence. Toward it the eyes of all intelligences are directed; to it all beings are amenable; from it all laws that determine the character and regulate the destiny of all creatures proceed.

2. The effect of this manifestation. Before its refulgence this material universe could not stand; it meltedit vanished away. “No more place was found for them” (Rev 20:11). It will pass away, perhaps, as the orbs of night pass away in the high noontide of the sun: they are still in being, still in their orbits, and still move on as ever; but they are lost to us by reason of a “glory that excelleth.” What a contrast between Christ now as the Judge, and Christ of old as the despised Nazarene!

II. THIS RETRIBUTIVE PERIOD WILL WITNESS THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD, AND THE CONSEQUENT DESTRUCTION OF HADES AND THE GRAVE. “And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell [Hades] delivered up the dead which were in them” (Rev 20:13). The words suggest two thoughts on this subject.

1. That in the resurrection there will be a connection between man’s raised and man’s mortal body. A resurrection of the material relics is a traditional dogma of the stupid, not a conviction of the studious. It is evidently implied that the resurrection-body is a something that has come out of the body, deposited either in the grave or the sea. What is the connection? Is it meant that men will come up with exactly the same bodies as they had during the probationary state? This, probably, is the vulgar idea, and this is the idea against which infidels level their objections. The question is now, as of old, “With what body do they come?” And assuming that they come in the same body, they commence their antagonistic reasonings and their sneers. But this is not the Scripture doctrine. “That which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be.” If it be saidIs there no identity, no sameness? I askWhat do you mean by “sameness “? If you say sameness, in the sense of particles, bulk, or capacity, I answerNo! The sameness between the old body and the resurrection body is not the sameness between the seed you deposit in the soil and the wheat which in autumn is produced by it. The one grows out of the other, has the form of the other; the resurrection body is not the same as the old probationary body, in the same sense as the body of any given individual is the same in its man-state as it was in its child-state. Take the case of a man in two different periods of lifesay, ten years of age and sixty. In the intervening periods his body has passed through several radical changes; yet at sixty he feels that he has the same body which he had at ten. It is not until your science comes that he questions it; and where the science has been the most convincing, it has never destroyed this underlying consciousness of physical identity. How can you account for this consciousness of sameness?

(1) Not because he knows the particles to be the same. He cannot know that, for it is contrary to fact; the particles of his body, when a child, having gone off long ago, and mixed themselves, perhaps, with a hundred different bodies.

(2) Not because he knows the amount is the same. He may know that there are ten times the quantity in the one body state as in the other.

(3) Not because he knows the capability is the same. In its childish stage it was weak, incapable of much labour or endurance; but in its man-state it is vigorousits physical powers have increased manifold. How, then, can you account for this consciousness? Consciousness must have some truth as a foundation.

(a) Because he knows the one has risen out of the other. It has been an evolution. The casual connection has been preserved. The one was the outcome of the other.

(b) Because he knows the one has retained the same plan, or outline as the other. If the body, in the man-state, had taken a form different to that of its child-state, the consciousness of identity might have been lost. If it passed, for instance, from the human form to the lion, eagle, or any other form, though the particles might have been all retained, and bulk and capacity continued as ever, the sense of identity would have been lost.

(c) Because he knows the one fulfils the same functions as the other. The body, in the child-state, was the inlet and outlet of himself. Through it, in all cases, he derived and imparted his feelings and ideas. It was the great medium between his spirit and the material universe. Now, for these three reasons, man may feel that his resurrection body is the same as the one in which he spent his probationary life. It grows out of the buried. There is in the body that went down to the grave a something, I know not what, which the man, the spiritual self, takes into his immortal frame. The resurrection body may retain its present form or outline; it may be moulded after the same archetype. It may also fulfil many of the same functions. Ever will it be the medium between the material and the spiritual. I know, then, of no objection that you can urge against the fact of a man having a resurrection body which he may feel to be identical with his probationary body, that could not antecedently be urged against a fact in the present experience of every adultthe fact of an individual having a man body which he feels to be the same as his child body.

2. That the resurrection will be coextensive with the mortality of mankind. “The sea gave up its dead.” What a vast cemetery is the sea! Here mighty navies slumber; millions of the industrious, the enterprising, and the brave, lie beneath its restless waves. But all must now come forth. All that have perishedwhether in the barques of scientific expedition, or the ships of commerce, or the fleets of conquered nations, must come forth in this dread day. “Death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them” (Rev 20:13). This is the grave. “All that are in their graves shall hear the voice of the Son of man, and shall come forth.” What a voice is that! It would reverberate over sea and land, from island to island, from continent to continent; roll its thunders through the deepest vaults and catacombs; and soon the mouldering skeletons and the scattered dust would feel the stir of life, and spring to immortality. Martyrs, who had no grave to shelter them from the storm of ages, whose dust was consumed in the flames, and left at the mercy of the wild elements, would appear again; as the field of battle, where mighty armies struggled in demon fury, would start to life on the plains where, in hellish rage, they fell. “And hell gave up its dead.” Hell here means, not the place of punishment, but the universe of disembodied spirits, both good and bad. This Hades of the Greeks, and Sheol of the Hebrews, sends forth all the myriads of human souls that it has ever received, from Abel to the last man that grappled with the” king of terrors.” “The small and great.” Not an infant too young, not a patriarch too old. Tyrants and their slaves, sages and their pupils, ministers and their peopleall will appear.

III. This RETRIBUTIVE PERIOD WILL BRING HUMANITY INTO CONSCIOUS CONTACT WITH GOD. “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God” (Rev 20:12). They stand before God; they confront him, as it were, eye to eye, being to being. Each feels God to be the All to him now. The idea of God fills every soul as a burning flame. They stand before him, feeling his presence, and awaiting his doom fixing word. This is a distinguishing feature of the retributive period. In every preceding period of human history, with the exception of the millennial ages, the vast majorities of all generations had no conscious contact with God. Some denied his very being, whilst others desired not a knowledge of his ways. But hence on, forever and ever, all the good and the bad will “stand before God”will be in conscious contact with him. His felt presence will be the heaven of the good, and his felt presence will be the hell of the ceil.

1. There will be no atheism after this. How will the atheist teachers of the past ages feel now? Lucretius, Democritus, and Strabo among the ancients; Diderot, Lagrange, D’Alembert, Mirabeau, and Hobbes amongst the moderns, will feel now, and evermore, that the greatest reality in the universe was the Being whose existence they impiously ignored or denied.

2. There will be no deism after this. The men who taught, through preceding ages, the doctrine that God had no immediate connection with his creatures; that he governed the universe through an inflexible system of laws; that he took no Cognizance of individuals, and felt no interest in them, will know now that no being in the universe had been in such close contact with every particle and period of their existence as God. All the objects that intervened between God and the soul will be withdrawn now; the veil of sense and matter will be rent asunder, to unite no more.

3. There will be no indifferentism after this. God’s Being, presence, and claims will no longer be subjects of no importance. They will be everything to all. God’s presence will fill the conscious life of all, as midday sun without a cloud the day.

IV. THIS RETRIBUTIVE PERIOD WILL SETTLE FOREVER THE QUESTION OF EVERY MAN‘S CHARACTER AND DESTINY. “And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works,” etc. (Rev 20:12, Rev 20:13). Here observe three things.

1. That the worth of a man’s character will be determined by his works. “According to their works.” Not by religious position, or creed, or profession, or office; but by “works.” “What has a man done?” will be the question.

2. That a man’s works will be determined by recognized authorities. “Books” will be opened. God’s moral and remedial laws are books, and these books will now be openedopened to memory, to conscience, and the universe. This will be a day of moral conviction.

3. That according to the correspondence, or noncorrespondence, of man’s works with these recognized authorities will be his final destiny. “Whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (Rev 20:15). “The book of life”the remedial law or scheme of salvationthe gospel. Whoever was not found vitally interested in this was cast into the lake of fire.

What a scene is this that has passed under review! In its light how mean do man’s highest dignities and honours appear! How ineffably paltry the pageantry of courts! how empty the pretensions of sovereigns! How solemn is life, in all its stages, relations, and aspects! God help us to live in the light of “that day”!D.T.

Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary

Rev 20:1. This chapter represents a new state of the church, upon its deliverance from the persecution and corruption of the third period, or during the reign of the two beasts, or 1260 prophetic days or years. That long state of oppression is to be followed by a long continuance of peace, and prosperity. A fourth period is described, which, among other characters, is to last for a thousand years. The two first periods ended in a deliverance of the church; but those deliverances were of short continuance, and attended with considerable defects; but now, after the church shall have passed through this third trial of faith and patience, it is to attain a state of very great prosperity, and to remain in it for a considerable length of time. This is that happy state of the church, which, from the continuation of it for a thousand years, is usually called the Millennium. The description we have of it in this chapter, is very short,containedinthefirstsixverses:interpreters,however,have abundantly supplied what they thought wanting in the propheticaccount,out of their own invention, it is to be feared, rather than from sure and well-grounded principles of judgment. No wonder then that they have differed so much about the true meaning of a prophesy, in which they have mixed so many of their own imaginations; so that the disputes seem not so much what is the intention of the Spirit of prophesy, as which of the interpreters has the finest or the warmest imagination. Let us then carefully endeavour to distinguish what the Spirit of prophesy plainly intends, from what uncertain conjectures or doubtful reasonings may suggest to our minds, for a more distinct and particular account.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Rev 20:1-6. And I saw an angel come down from heavens &c. After the destruction of the beast, and the false prophet,there still remains the dragon, who had delegated his power unto them; that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, Rev 20:2. but he is bound by an angel,an especial minister of Providence; and the famous millennium, or the reign of the saints upon earth for a thousand years, commences. Binding him with a great chain, casting him into the bottomless pit, shutting him up, and setting a seal upon him, (Rev 20:3.) are strong figures, to shew the strict and severe restraint which he should be laid under, that he should deceive the nations no more during this whole period. Wickedness being restrained, the reign of righteousness succeeds; and the martyrs and confessors of Jesus, not only those who were beheaded, or suffered any kind of death under the Roman emperors, but also those who refused to comply with the idolatrous worship of the beast and his image, are raised from the dead, and have the principal share in the felicities of Christ’s kingdom upon earth, Rev 20:4. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished, Rev 20:5. so that this was a peculiar prerogative of the martyrs and confessors, above the rest of mankind. This is the first resurrection, a particular resurrection, preceding the general one at least a thousand years. Blessed and holy too is he who hath part in the first resurrection; Rev 20:6. He is holy in all senses of the word; holy, as separated from the common lot of mankind; holy, as endowed with all holy and virtuous qualifications; and none but such are admitted to partake of this blessed state:On such the second death hath no power. The second death is a Jewish phrase for the punishment of the wicked after death. The Chaldee paraphrase of Onkelos, and the other paraphrases of Jonathan Ben Uziel, and of Jerusalem, on Deu 33:6 . Let Reuben live, and not die, say, “Let him not die the second death, by which the wicked die in the world to come.” The sons of the resurrection therefore shall not die again, but shall live in eternal bliss, as well as enjoy all the glories of the millennium;be priests of God and Christ, and reign with him a thousand years. Nothing is more evident than that this prophesy of the millennium, and of the first resurrection, has not yet been fulfilled, even though the resurrection be taken in a figurative sense. For, reckon the thousand years from the time of Christ, or reckon them from the time of Constantine, yet neither of these periods, nor indeed any other, will answer the description and character of the millennium, the purity and peace, the holiness and happiness of that blessed state.

Before Constantine, the church was indeed in greater purity, but was groaning under the persecutions of the heathen emperors: after Constantine, the churchwas in greater prosperity, but was soon shaken and disturbed by heresies, schisms, incursions, devastations, corruptions, idolatry, wickedness, and cruelty. If Satan was then bound, when can he be said to be loosed? Or how could the saints and the beast, Christ and antichrist, reign at the same time? This prophesy therefore remains yet to be fulfilled, eventhough the resurrection be taken only for an allegory; which yet the text cannot admit, without the greatest torture and violence. For with what propriety can it be said, that some of the dead who were beheaded, lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years, but the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished, unless the dying and living again be the same in both places;a proper death and resurrection. Indeed, the death and resurrection of the witnesses, ch. 11 appear, from the concurrent circumstances of the vision, to be figurative; but the death and resurrection here mentioned, must, for the very same reasons, be concluded to be real. If the martyrs rise only in a spiritual sense, then the rest of the dead rise only in a spiritual sense; but if the rest of the dead really rise, the martyrs rise in the same manner. There is no difference between them; and we should be cautious and tender of making the first resurrection an allegory, lest others should reduce the second into an allegory too, like those whom St. Paul mentions, 2Ti 2:17-18 . In the general, that there shall be such a happy period as the millennium, is the plain and express doctrine of Dan 7:27 . Psa 2:8 . Isa 11:9 . Rom 11:25; Rom 11:36 . and of all the prophets, as well as of St. John; and we daily pray for the accomplishment of it, in saying, thy kingdom come. But of all the prophets, St. John is the only one who has declared particularly, and in express terms, that the martyrs shall rise to partake of the felicities of this kingdom; and that it shall continue upon earth a thousand years: and the Jewish church before him, and the Christian church after him, have farther believed and taught, that these thousand years will be the seventh millenary of the world. A pompous heap of quotations might be produced to this purpose, both from Jewish and Christian writers; but to enumerate only a few of both sorts: among the Jewish writers, are rabbi Ketina, and the house of Elias: among the Christian writers, are St. Barnabas in the first century, Justin Martyr in the second century, Tertullian in the beginning of the third, and Lactantius in the beginning of the fourth century. In short, the doctrine of the millennium was generally believed in the three first and purest ages; and this belief was one principal cause of the fortitude of the primitive Christians: they even coveted martyrdom, in hopes of being partakers of the privileges and glories of the martyrs in the first resurrection. Afterwards this doctrine grew into disrepute for various reasons: some, both Jewish and Christian writers, have debased it with a mixture of fables. It has suffered by the misrepresentations of its enemies, as well as by the indiscretions of its friends: it has been abused even to the worst purposes; it has been made an engine of faction. Besides, wherever the influence and authority of the church of Rome have extended, she has endeavoured by all means to discredit this doctrine; and indeed not without sufficient reason, this kingdom of Christ being founded on the ruins of antichrist. No wonder, therefore, that this doctrine lay depressed for many ages; but it sprang up again at the Reformation, and will flourish together with the study of the Revelation. All the danger is, on the one side of pruning and lopping it too short; and, on the other, of suffering it to grow too wild and luxuriant. Great caution and judgment are required, to keep in the middle way. We should neither, with some, interpret it into allegory; nor, with others, indulge an extravagant fancy, nor explain too curiously the manner and circumstances of this future state: it is safest and best faithfully to adhere to the words of scripture, and to rest contented with the general account, till time shall accomplish and clear up all the particulars.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Rev 20:1-3 . An angel, descending from heaven, binds Satan with a great chain, and casts him into the abyss for one thousand years.

. The comparison of Rev 1:18 cannot prove that the angel [4144] is Christ. [4145]

. The key of the abyss which, according to the analogy of the in other respects not entirely conformable presentation, Rev 1:18 , is to be regarded as being in the hands of Christ was “given,” Rev 9:1 , under particular circumstances, for a definite purpose to another; in this passage the angel, who likewise needed the key for a definite purpose (Rev 20:2 sq.), brought it from heaven, where he, therefore, had received it when he was sent. Ew. ii. is accordingly incorrect in identifying the angel in this passage with the one who is represented as being active in Rev 9:1-11 . . Cf. Mar 5:3 sq. [4146]

. Cf. Rev 5:1 . “In” the hand, [4147] the chain could not be held because of its great weight; it lies “on” the hand, and hangs down on both sides.

. Vivid representation of the event. Cf. Rev 19:20 .

, . . . The nominative of apposition, without construction, is like Rev 1:5 . On the designation, cf. Rev 12:9 ; the complete harmony in this passage shows that now that original enemy was bound, who, after he had been cast from heaven to earth, became the proper originator of every thing antichristian in the world.[See Note LXXXVI., p. 472.] . The accus. [4148] designates the length of the time during which Satan is to be bound. Cf. in other respects on Rev 20:10 .

. Cf. Rev 20:1 ; Rev 9:1 ; Rev 11:7 ; Rev 17:8 . The abyss of hell is the place where Satan properly belongs, and whence he himself, like the demoniacal powers, has proceeded in order to work upon earth. But since for a thousand years he will be confined against his will to one place, [4149] so long is his agency on earth interrupted ( ., . . .).

. With the object is understood; but just because this is not expressly added, the limitation can the more readily qualify the : “upon him,” i.e., Satan, who has been cast into the bottomless pit, the angel “set a seal,” in order to give the greater assurance of the secure guarding of the one imprisoned. [4150]

. As he had previously done, [4151] as long as unbound, he could exercise his wrath on earth. [4152] The subj. aor., with a future meaning, [4153] presupposes that during the one thousand years, and, therefore, after the act of judgment, Rev 19:21 , there would still be nations who also, at the end of the one thousand years, would be actually led astray. [4154] This seeming difficulty would be avoided by the reading , which depends upon the view customary in the Church fathers, but absolutely in violation of the context, that the worldly period of one thousand years began with the birth or death of Christ, and, therefore, is the present. [4155]

; viz., . The definite numerical specification immediately precedes, and to it corresponds also the temporal statement: .

. Cf. Rev 1:1 , Rev 4:1 .

[4144] Beng., De Wette, etc.

[4145] Against Hengstenb., Alcas., Calov., Vitr. Cf. also Coccej., who again understands the Holy Ghost.

[4146] Etym., M.: , [ is a chain forged either from brass, or iron, or silver, or gold].

[4147] Ew. ii. reads even . .

[4148] Cf. Rev 9:5 .

[4149] Cf. Rev 20:7 : .

[4150] Cf. Mat 27:66 .

[4151] Cf. Rev 13:14 , Rev 16:13 .

[4152] Rev 12:12 .

[4153] Cf. Winer, p. 472.

[4154] Cf. Rev 20:8 sq.

[4155] See on Rev 20:10 .

NOTES BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR

LXXXVII. Rev 20:4 .

Gebhardt suggests, that, by , either no definite persons are intended, so that it was simply intended to express the idea, “here was a judgment;” or, as he thinks more probable, believers alive at the coming of Christ.

NOTES BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR

LXXXVIII. Rev 20:4 . , . . .

Gebhardt: “The seer had, in his eye, two classes of the dead: first, those who have, for the gospel, surrendered their lives, the witnesses of Jesus in a special sense (Rev 17:6 ); not only those whose souls (Rev 6:9 ) are under the altar, but those also who come after (Rev 6:11 ; cf. Rev 13:7 , Rev 10:5 , Rev 16:5-6 , Rev 17:6 , Rev 18:24 ); the full number of those who, according to the will of God, should die; until the completion of which, those already killed must rest in heaven (Rev 6:9-11 ); then, all other believers who, notwithstanding affliction and threatened death, remain faithful, and have died in the Lord (Rev 14:13 , Rev 13:15-16 ); in a word, all real Christians who have died either a violent or a natural death.” The second resurrection he regards as including not only the condemned, but also the godly of the O. T. The emphasis here is sometimes thrown on , as though this were sufficient to prove that the first resurrection of this chapter is spiritual. But, in this sense, had the souls of the martyrs ever died? How could they be said to live again , for that is the clear implication of Rev 20:5 , if nothing more than a continuance of their spiritual life were indicated? Alford: “If in a passage where two resurrections are mentioned, where certain at the first, and the rest of the only at the end of a specified period after that first, if, in such a passage, the first resurrection may be understood to mean spiritual rising with Christ, while the second means literal rising from the grave, then there is an end of all significance in language, and Scripture is wiped out as a definite testimony to any thing. If the first resurrection is spiritual, then so is the second, which, I suppose, none will be hardy enough to maintain; but, if the second is literal, so is the first.” On the other hand, the difficulty must not be ignored, which is stated by Carpenter: “There will be faithless people during the millennium, the nations to be deceived (Rev 20:8 ). Are we then to picture saints with glorified bodies living on the earth, which, at the same time, is tenanted by men and women still in the natural body?”

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

B.Earth-Picture of the Victory over the Beast. The Parousia of Christ for Judgment

Rev 19:17 to Rev 20:5

a. The Judgment upon the Beast

17And I saw an [one][30] angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud [great] voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven [mid-heaven], Come and gather yourselves [om. and gather yourselvesins., be gathered][31] together unto the [ins. great]32 supper of the great [om. the great] God; 18That ye may eat the [om. the]33 flesh of kings, and the [om. the]4 flesh of captains [ins. of thousands], and the [om. the]4 flesh of mighty [strong] men, and the [om. the]4 flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the [om. the]4 flesh of all men [om. men], both19 [om. both] free and [as well as]34 bond, both [and] small and great. And I saw the beast [wild-beast], and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make [ins. the]35 war against [with] him that sat [the one sitting] on the horse, and against [with] his army. 20And the beast [wild-beast] was taken, and with him36 the false prophet that wrought miracles [the signs] before him [in his presence], with which he deceived [seduced or misled ()] them that had [om. had] received the mark of the beast [wild-beast], and them that worshipped his image. [:] These both [the two] were cast alive into a [the] lake of [ins. the] fire burning [that burneth] with brimstone. 21And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat [the one sitting] upon the horse, which sword proceeded [goeth forth] out of his mouth: and all the fowls [birds] were filled [satiated] with their flesh.

b. The Millennial Kingdom [Rev 20:1-5)

1And I saw an angel come down from [descending out ofins. the] heaven, having the key of the bottomless [om. bottomless] pit [abyss] and a great chain in [upon] his hand. 2And he laid hold on the dragon, that [or the] old [ancient] serpent,37 which [that] is the Devil [or Slanderer], and Satan [or the Adversary]38, and bound him a thousand years, 3and cast him into the bottomless [om. bottomless] pit [abyss], and shut him up, and set a seal upon [om. him up, and set a seal uponins. and sealed over]39 him, that he should [might] deceive [seduce or mislead ()]40 the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled [finished]: and [om. and]41 after that [these] he must be loosed a little season [time]. 4And I saw thrones, and they sat [ins. down]42 upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were [had been] beheaded for [on account of] the witness of Jesus, and for [on account of] the word of God, and which [who] had not [om. had not] worshipped [ins. not] the beast [wild-beast], neither [nor yet]43 his image, neither had [om. neither hadins. and] received [ins. not] his [om. hisins. the] mark upon their [the]44 foreheads, or in [om., or inins. and upon] their hands [hand]; and they lived and reigned with Christ a455 thousand years. But [om. But]46 The rest of the dead lived not again [om. again][47] until [till] the thousand years were [should be] finished. This is the first resurrection.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

SYNOPTICAL VIEW

a. The Judgment

The judgment upon the Beast is accomplished, not in a manner purely of this world and in a form purely historical, like the judgment upon the Harlot, but in a more spiritual form, which is based upon the appearance of Christ from the other world, and which introduces the cosmical transition-form between time and eternity, the Millennial Kingdom.
The first point for consideration is that cosmical change itself, which proceeds from the sun and summons all the birds under the Heaven, all the forces of earthly metamorphosis, to consume all the dead flesh, the exanimate materials which shall be the issue of the great defeat of the Antichristian worldto consume them, in order to convert them into new life.
The second point is ethically mysterious. A decisive act of judgment takes the place of the battle contemplated by the Beast and the Kings. The two leaders and misleaders of the infatuated Antichristian host, the Beast and the False Prophet, are seized. That which seizes them seems to be a judgment of madness, for they are cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. For them, hell begins in this life; the fire of the fuel in which they have wrapped themselves, surrounds them on all sidesa flame of infinitely wild, fanatical agitation, doomed, in consequence of its absolute worthlessness, to form the pool of a mortal and dead stagnationthe unprogressive and eternally monotonous movement in a circle, or the fiery whirlpool of phrases and curses. In the case of the False Prophet, his guilt is once more noted, in explanation of his judgment; the most bitter reminiscences cling to the perfidy of his apostasy.
The third point is the judgment upon the followers of the Beast. They are not immediately cast into the fiery lake, but are for the time only killed. They are killed by the sword issuing from the mouth of Christ. They are morally judged and annihilated. What remains of them is a world of shadows, a sort of realm of the dead on the surface of this earth itself. All the birds become satiated with their flesh; i. e., all their sensuous and earthly possessions have lost their value and are decayed like the flesh strewed over a field of dead bodies. All the birds are satiated with their flesh; i. e., all the forces of metamorphosis are laboring for their transformation into a new shape. The fullness and manifoldness of the flesh to be devoured by the birds is vividly described in Rev 19:18. A complete end is to be made of all this.

Though it might with reason be said that because the sun is the symbol of the revelation of salvation, the Angel of judgment, standing in the sun as the angel of the whole salvatory development of revelation, indicates the hour when the work of the revelation of salvation is entirely completed, when the world clock of the history of salvation in this world has run downwe must not overlook the fact that this moment must coincide with the perfect ripeness of our cosmical system, and that, consequently, a catastrophe must start from the centre of our cosmical system, as well as from the focus of our religious moral system. The harvest of the earth and the harvest of the Kingdom of God coincide, in accordance with the parallelism between spirit and nature, as is declared in the Eschatological Discourse of our Lord (Mat 24:29), although the Day of the Harvest, the Last Day, stretches out into an on of a thousand years in a symbolical sense.

The birds of the heaven have, in typical preludes, often been invited to similar feasts upon the slaughter fields of history (Deu 28:26; Jer 7:33; Jer 16:4; Eze 39:17). In this fact there is not only an expression of irony concerning the vanity of earths glory, but also an expression of the triumph of life over death. The Kingdom of God is acquainted with a transformation of matter; it is, however, of another and higher sort than that of which modern materialists talk; it does not lie under the curse of an eternal rotation, but is, on the contrary, under the law of the highest life, which changes this lower world of becoming into the eternal world of the City of God.

b. The Millennial Kingdom

The prophecy of the thousand years of Christs reign on earth is, in and for itself, a true pearl of Christian truth and knowledge, because it throws light upon an entire series of difficult Christian conceptions.
In the first place, it mediates an understanding of the Last Day, in that it shows how the latter expands into a Divine Day of a thousand years, in a symbolical sense, i.e., a specific on; and thus it also casts light backwards upon the import of the days of creation.

Secondly, it mediates the understanding of a catastrophe which is to divide between this life and the life to come, time and eternity, the world of becoming and the world of consummation, in that it shows how the great and mighty contrast is harmonized by an onic transition-period, in perfect accordance with the laws of life and vital development, as was clearly explained by Irenus (see Dorner, Geschichte der Christologie, p. 243).

Especially does it mediate the fact of the resurrection, in that it represents a first resurrection as preceding the general resurrection, in harmony with the Apostle Paul (1Co 15:23). Thus the resurrection is characterized as an affair of growth or progress, conditioned upon spiritual circumstances. In accordance with this, we apprehend the fact that even in this life the believer advances towards the resurrection (Php 3:11); that a resurrection-germ gradually develops within him (Romans 8.); that the beginnings of the resurrection commence with his removal into the other world (2 Corinthians 6.); that believers, in their ripening towards the resurrection, are, as blossoms of the general resurrection, a whole on in advance of the rest of mankinda fact which is also indicative of a higher form of resurrection; and that Christ must needs have been the firstling and the principle of the whole resurrection (Eph 1:20).

Thus also the great antithesis is explained which must necessarily exist between the original transruption (Durchburch) of sin or the curse in humanity and the final transruption (Durchburch) of salvation and blessing. As, in the primitive age, pneumatic corruption was for a long time hindered in its outbreak by the resistance of healthy vital substance in the psychical, somatic and cosmical sphere, so in the New Testament time, pneumatic salvation in humanity has had to struggle long with the resistance of evil in the psychical, somatic and cosmical sphere. With the beginning of the Millennial Kingdom, however, begins the transruption of the blessing, in opposition to the old transruption of the curse.

Whilst, on the one hand, the communication of believing humanity with Heaven and its pure spirit-world is spiritually consummated by the Parousia of Christ, and destined to be also physically consummated, the communication between the spiritual sphere of earth and the Satanic sphere of the abyss, on the other hand, is discontinued:in the first place, because the organic mediators of Satanic operations, the Beast and the False Prophet, as also Great Babylon, are judged and destroyed. Though at the close of the great transition-on Satan again obtains a foot-hold on the earth, it is the last convulsive struggle of the serpent-nature manifesting itself in a brutal mutiny, which, for the very reason that it is veiled under no spiritual pretexts, like former Satanic efforts, but is the issue of consummate boldness and insolence, is blasted, not by Christological weapons, but by the fire of the Almighty from Heaven.

But of this great effulgent picture of the Millennial Kingdom, the lack of patience and hope in the Christian sphere (Rom 8:24-25) has made the most manifold caricatures.

We distinguish the caricatures of real so-called Chiliasm; the caricatures of the spiritualistic denial of Chiliasm, even to the misapprehension of its primal typeaccording to this class, the Apocalypse itself is chiliastic, and the same character is finally attributed to the concrete Christian hope; finally, the caricatures of the Millennial Kingdom which were produced by placing it in the past or the present (see the Introduction).
True Chiliasm existed, so far as its element was concerned, long before the doctrinal forth-setting of the , whence it takes its name. It is based upon the great family failing of all Judaizing Christianity; to such Christianity, the cross of Christ is still, more or less, an offence; to such Christianity, the redemption accomplished in the first Parousia of Christ is unsatisfying, and the centre of gravity of the redemption is consequently regarded as situate in the second Parousia, when Christ shall appear in His glory, and shall also promote His people to the state of glory. This Judaizing Christianity has no understanding of the principial completion of redemption in its depth and inwardness; hence, only in the final, peripheral redemption does it behold the true redemption. According as its ideals of glory are nobler or more base, its eschatological hopes assume a purer or an impurer form, so that a perfect scale of Chiliasms is formed, stretching from an anticipation of the sensuous glorification of Israel to the most carnal orgies in pre-celebration of the return of Christ. This is material Chiliasm proper. It has been rejuvenated in three Anglo-American sects of our own time. The element of truth which is perverted into falsehood and extravagance in it, is the Christian and Biblical expectation of the real, and in a religious sense ever near, coming of Christ.[48]

But material Chiliasm early sought and found a formal supplement, in that it boldly converted the words of the Apostle Peter (2Pe 3:8)words which, spoken with reference to Psa 110:4, were designed as a counteraction against chiliastic impatienceinto a chronological article of doctrine, in which it believed that it had discovered the key to the computation of the time of Christs coming. A Judaizing presupposition was here involvedviz., that Gods historical work of salvation would arrive at completion in a Divine week, reflected in the human week. To this was added later the further assumption, that at the first coming of Christ the world had been in existence for about four thousand years. Upon these bases men reckoned, and determined the time of the second Advent. Here another arbitrary assumption arose, converting the Millennial Kingdom into the real Sabbath of God, though the latter is to last forever, whilst the Apocalyptic on appears as a mere transition-period. In many respects, this formal Chiliasm, whence the system has its name, was subservient to material Chiliasm; in many other respects, however, especially in more modern Theology, formal Chiliasm, as a theological subtilty, detached itself entirely from material tendencies, although it continued to be afflicted with the material infirmity of a somewhat superficial and extravagant conception of the history of salvation.

In face of all these Judaizing conceptions, the spiritualistico-ethnical conception has always considered itself bound, not only to combat true, sensuous Chiliasm, but also to controvert, or at least cast a shade upon, its assumptionsthe expectation of the real coming of Christ, for instance; and it has especially felt itself obliged to cast the reproach of Chiliasm upon the putative originator of the same, the Apocalypse. And this, particularly, on account of the thousand years, the . The Tales of a Thousand and One Nights might, with about equal justice, be denominated a chiliastic composition.

A turbid mixture of both one-sided views is formed by the placing of the Millennial Kingdom in the course of Church History. In reference to this mixed form, we can distinguish two species. Medival Catholicism beheld in the Romish Church the actualized Kingdom of God itself, especially in respect of the papal system. The Old Lutheran orthodox dating back of the Millennial Kingdom into the Middle Agesa view recently revived by Hengstenbergwas a fruit of the stunting of Eschatology in the era of the Reformation, especially in adherence to utterances of Luthers. We here refer partly to the history of the interpretation of the Apocalypse, as already presented by us, partly to the following exegesis in detail.
The singular opinion of Stier and others, that there is to be a double Parousia, one at the beginning and the other at the end of the Millennial Kingdom, seems desirous of conjoining so-called Chiliasm with the older orthodoxy.[49]

With the judgment upon the spiritual motive powers of the Beast, with the destruction of his powerful lies, Satan has lost his foot-hold within the infatuated human racehis right of naturalization, we might say, in this earthly sphere. He is therefore cast into the abyss. An Angel descends from Heaven to execute Gods sentence upon him. The office of this Angel reminds us of the offices of Michael; his name, however, is not mentioned. He has the key to the abyssnot simply to the pit of the abyss; this key he has in order that he may shut the abyss, i. e. entirely shut off Satanic influences from men for the time of the thousand years. This power, however, is connected with the moral fact that all the spiritual pretences contained in the Satanic illusive promise, eritis sicut deus, are destroyed by the beauteous reality of the great appearance of the Kingdom. All that Satan falsely promised concerning the path of impatience and guilt, is here attained in the path of pious patience: fullness of blessing, happiness, glory of life of every sort. Thus Satan has come to the end of his Latin, and needs, agreeably to the serpents tenacity of life, a thousand years to contrive the last desperate stroke of senseless heaven-storminga procedure which is reported to have been the first act of the revolted Titans of Grecian story.[50] And for this last rebellion a further existence is granted him, for the judgment upon him must be complete. His existence during the thousand years, however, consists in a sojourn in the abyss, betwixt death and damnation (the Realm of the Dead [Hades] and Gehenna), fastened to the chain which the Angel brings with him from Heaven. He has now made an open show of his entire nature, and is therefore called by his various forms and titles, except that the appellation of Accuser is no longer given to himalthough even this name is contained in the . The condemnatory sentence is executed in four acts which follow each other in rapid succession. He is seized, cast chained (not chained to any object external to himself, but hand to hand, 2Pe 2:4) into the abyss, shut in, and sealed. The seal is the symbolic expression for the appointed Divine doom upon him, and is more powerful in its effect than the seal with which the grave of Jesus was sealed. The purpose of all this is that he may not prematurely seduce the heathen, the remnants of heathenism which still constitute the old border of the new world that is in process of becoming.

This, then, is the negative side of the Millennial Kingdom. The positive side appears in three features: [1] The first resurrection, [2] the first judgment of restitution, [3] the first period of imperishable triumphal rest and rejoicing and unfading glory in the fellowship of Christ. The first resurrection is represented as a special reward of the faithfulness of Christs martyrsabove all, the martyrs of the last time, who have not worshipped the Beast; hence these latter constitute a particular class by the side of those slain at an earlier period. They stand in the fore-ground, as representatives of the Victorious Church (see 1Co 15:23); but we must recollect that this Church is itself of greater extent than here appears. For Christ has come with the hosts of Heaven, according to Rev 19:14; according to the Epistle of Jude (Rev 19:14), He is to come with His myriads of saints. With the sphere of this resurrection, the full liberation of the life-power on the sanctified earth is expressed (see Isa 65:13 sqq.). The second sphere is the sphere of the preliminary judgment. For the Seer, this occupies the foreground, since Christian longing cries for the removal of all the shame and wrong which, in this world, weigh upon the name of Christ and Christians; hence the Seer first sees the thrones of judgment set. If we consider that the judgment upon the Antichristian host has already been held, and that the last judgment upon the last revolt, which is as yet but germinating deep in the darkness, cannot be anticipated, there results, as a middle domain of judgment, an instruction (Pdagogik) and discipline exercised by Heaven upon the human race, as extant at the Parousia, and thus sharing in the cosmical metamorphosis. It is that process of elimination and sanctification which must take place before the perfect appearing of the City of God on this earth; it is a judgment of peace, in accordance with Psalms 72 and Mat 19:28. The third sphere is the living and reigning with Christ in the glory of a spiritual life which dominates and clarifies all creaturely essencethe organization of earth for its union with Heaven. There is no trace here of an external restoration of Israel in the sense of a privileged people of God, or of a restoration of the Old Testament cultus in an inconceivable New Testament sublimation; unless we should apply the subsequent words, they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and the words the beloved City, to the support of such a theoryin which case the symbolism of the expression must necessarily be di-carded. We cannot suppose that there is to be a two-fold heavenly Jerusalem; and the one true Jerusalem is still in Heaven, whence, according to Rev 21:2, it does not descend to earth until the end of the thousand years.

[THEORIES CONCERNING THE MILLENNIUM51]

By the American Editor

[The word Millennium means, etymologically, a thousand years, and may with propriety be used in reference to any period of that length. By common consent, however, the specific term The Millennium is employed to denote the period mentioned in Rev 20:4-7. The theories on this subject that have been held in the Church are divisible into two classesthe Preterist and the Futuristthe former of which set forth that the origin of the Millennial period was in the past; the latter, that it is in the future. Each of these classes consists of two or three generic theories, the respective upholders of which differ amongst themselves on many specific points. It is proper to remark that in the following statement the writer has been greatly indebted to the work of Elliott.

a. Preterist Theories

I. The Augustinian. This theory is so styled as it was first propounded by the great Augustine in his Civitate Dei, Rev 20:7-9. It has been upheld in all ages of the Church since its first promulgation, and in modern times by Wordsworth. Its main elements are1. The period began at the first Advent, when Satan was bound and cast out of the hearts of true Christians and their reign over him (regnum militi) began: 2. The Beast symbolizes the wicked world, and its image a hypocritical profession: 3. The first resurrection is that of dead souls to spiritual life,[52] a resurrection continued in every true conversion throughout the period: 4. The thousand years is a symbolical expression of completeness appropriately indicating the entire period of the Messiahs reign:[53] 5. This period to be followed by a new persecution of the Saints under Antichrist; the destruction of whose hosts by fire from heaven would be followed by the universal resurrection of the good and bad, and the general judgment; after which will begin, in heaven, the glorious period of the New Jerusalem.

II. The Grotian. This theory was first propounded by Genebrard in the 16th Century; it found its chief advocates, however, in Grotius and Hammond.[54] It differs principally from the preceding in that it makes the reign of Saints to be, not that of the individual Christian in the domain of his own heart, but that of the Church in the world. The elements of this theory are1. By the Beast is denoted Pagan Rome, whose destruction under Constantine was predicted in Rev 21:2. The power of Satan was then broken, as was manifested in the establishment of the Christian religion as the religion of the State: 3. The Millennial period began in that establishment, it was continued through a thousand years to the 14th Century, and closed with the attack on Christendom by the Ottoman Turks: 4. Gog and Magog denote the Mohammedan power, at the close of whose gradual destruction is to take placethe universal resurrection, the general judgment, and the eternal blessedness of the Saints in heaven.[55]

III. The Gippsian. This view, suggested by Mr. Gipps in 1831, makes the beginning of the period synchronous with the rise of Papal Antichrist. It represents (according to Elliott) those who lived and reigned with Christ to be men endowed with the spirit of the early Antipagan martyrs, now revived, as it were, to testify for Christ: after which, at the end of the Beasts and witnesses concurrent (!) Millennial reign, the second and glorious resurrection of the rest of the dead is to be fulfilled in the Jews conversion and restoration.

b. Futurist Theories

IV. The Pre-Millennial. This theory, as to its general features, is the most ancient. It was held by the primitive Fathers, and has been taught with various specific modifications in all ages of the Church. Amongst its most prominent English speaking advocates, in modern times, are Mede, Caryll, Gill, Noell, Elliott, the Bickersteths, the Bonars, Alford, Lord, etc. The elements are that1. The Millennium is to begin in a glorious personal advent of Christ, immediately after the destruction of Antichrist: 2. The binding of Satan is to be an absolute restriction of the powers of hell from tempting, deceiving, or injuring mankind: 3. The duration is to be one thousand years (literal or symbolical): 4. The resurrection is to be a literal resurrection of Saints of the preceding on (either the martyrs, or the specially faithful, or the entire body): 5. The entire government of the earth is to be exercised by Christ and His risen and transformed Saints, the latter being (Mar 12:25): 6. Under this government, all false religion having been put down, the Jews and all nations having been converted to Christ, Jerusalem being made the universal capital, righteousness, peace and external prosperity shall prevail throughout the earth: 7. At the close of this period, Satan having been loosed, there shall be a great apostasy, followed by (1) the destruction of the apostates, (2) the universal resurrection of the remaining dead of all dispensations, (3) the general judgment, (4) the consummation.

The principal variation amongst those who hold this theory are as to1. The continuance of Christ on earth;some holding that it is to be only for the establishment of the Kingdom; others that it is to continue more or less uninterruptedly throughout the whole period: 2. The duration, some holding that the thousand years are literal; others that they are symbolic: 3. The subjects of the resurrection;some holding that they are all the saints; others that they are only the martyrs; others still, that they are the specially faithful, including the martyrs: 4. The relation of the Jews to the other nations;some contending that they are to occupy a position of superiority; others denying or modifying this opinion.

V. The Post-Millennial. This theory, which is the one most generally adopted by English speaking Protestant Theologians, was first fully developed by Whitby.[56] Faber, Brown and Barnes have been amongst the most prominent of its advocates. The scheme as set forth by Whitby is as follows:

I. I believe that, after the fall of Antichrist, there shall be such a glorious state of the Church, by the conversion of the Jews to the Christian faith, as shall be to it life from the dead; that it shall then flourish in peace and plenty, in righteousness and holiness, and in a pious offspring; that then shall begin a glorious and undisturbed reign of Christ over both Jew and Gentile, to continue a thousand years during the time of Satans binding; and that, as John the Baptist was Elias, because he came in the spirit and power of Elias,so shall this be the church of martyrs, and of those who had not received the mark of the Beast, because of their entire freedom from all doctrines and practices of the Antichristian Church, and because the spirit and purity of the times of the primitive martyrs shall return. And therefore

1. I agree with the patrons of the Millennium in this, that I believe Satan bath not yet been bound a thousand years, nor will he be so bound till the time of the calling of the Jews, and the time of St. Johns Millennium.

2. I agree with them in this, that the true Millennium will not begin till the fall of Antichrist; nor will the Jews be converted till that time, the idolatry of the Roman Church being one great obstacle of their conversion.
3. I agree both with the modern and ancient Millenaries, that then shall be great peace and plenty, and great measures of knowledge and of righteousness in the whole Church of God.
I therefore only differ from the ancient Millenaries in three things:
1. In denying Christs personal reign upon earth during this thousand years; and in this both Dr. Burnet and Mr. Mede expressly have renounced their doctrine. [57]

2. Though I dare not absolutely deny what they all positively affirm, that the City of Jerusalem shall be then rebuilt, and the converted Jews shall return to it, because this probably may be collected from those words of Christ, Jerusalem shall be trodden down till the time of the Gentiles is come in, Luk 21:24, and all the prophets seem to declare the Jews shall then return to their own land, Jer 31:38-40; yet do I confidently deny what Barnabas and others of them do contend for, viz.: that the temple of Jerusalem shall be then built again; for this is contrary not only to the plain declaration of St. John, who saith, I saw no temple in this new Jerusalem, Rev 21:22, whence I infer there is to be no temple in any part of it; but to the whole design of the Epistle to the Hebrews, which is to show the dissolution of the temple-service, for the weakness and unprofitableness of it; that the Jewish tabernacle was only a figure of the true and the more perfect tabernacle which the Lord pitched, and not man; the Jewish sanctuary only a worldly sanctuary, a pattern, and a figure of the heavenly one into which Christ our High Priest is entered, Heb 8:2; Heb 9:2; Heb 9:11; Heb 9:23-24. Now, such a temple, such a sanctuary, and such service, cannot be suitable to the most glorious and splendid times of the Christian Church; and therefore the Apostle saith, The Lord God omnipotent, and the Lamb, shall be their Temple.

3. I differ both from the ancient and the modern Millenaries, as far as they assert that this shall be a reign of such Christians as have suffered under the heathen persecutors, or by the rage of Antichrist; making it only a reign of the converted Jews, and of the Gentiles then flowing in to them, and uniting into one Church with them.
With the above presentation, post-millenarians, in the main, agree. The chief point of difference is as to the return of the Jews to their own landsome holding, with Whitby, that it is to take place; others, denying it. There are also differences as to1. The nature of the Second Resurrection implied in Rev 20:5,some, with Vitringa, identifying it with the general resurrection of Rev 19:12-13; others, as Whitby, Faber and Brown, explaining it as the uprising of Antichristian principles in the confederacy of Gog and Magog: 2. The New Jerusalem,some, with Whitby, regarding it as relating to the Millennial condition of the Church; others, as Brown and Faber, understanding by it the post-millennial condition of blessedness and glory.E. R. C.]

EXPLANATIONS IN DETAIL

Rev 19:17. One angel standing in the sun.In the sun, because from this stand-point, fitted, as it also was, to the glory of the Angel, he can best call to the birds, flying (Ewald I., De Wette, Hengstenberg, Ebrard, Volkmar). Duesterdieck. If this were the motive for the position of the Angel, he might much better have taken his stand in the moon. His position in the sun has an import relative at once to the Kingdom of God and to the Cosmos. The sun, as revelation, is the principle of the spirit-realm of this present life; the sun, as a celestial body, is the domain of this present Cosmos (see Syn. View; comp. Rev 1:16; Mat 24:29). Come, be gathered together.See the citations above; comp. also Mat 24:28. According to Dsterdieck, the slain of Rev 19:21 are the whole mass of the inhabitants of the earth. But whence, then, would come the mutineers at the end of the thousand years? The Eastern kings should also be distinguished from the ten kings. Gog and Magog have not yet joined the conflict. The are, manifestly, the Antichristian host, from which the mass of earths inhabitants are still to be distinguished. Unto the great supper of God.Antithesis to the Marriage-Supper of the Lamb. At the former, all the flesh of the fleshly-minded becomes a prey to the birds; at the latter, believers, as heirs of God, become heirs of all things.

Rev 19:18. That ye may eat.The prospective complete destruction of the hostile host is set forth in detail.

Rev 19:19. And I saw the wild-beast.The war-making, on the part of the Beast, is entirely of this world; it is a march, a drawing up in order of battle, the combatants being provided, perhaps, with the most terrible material weapons. But, opposed to them, stands an army of God, partially and predominantly as a host of spirits. And yet more, the of Christ stands contrasted, in its perfect unity, with the internally confused and divided of the Beast. The attempt at an external conflict is immediately frustrated. The prophetic chiaroscuro resting upon this double array and battle cannot be brushed aside. It may only be gathered from the nature of the armies, that upon the side of Christ all the dynamic forces of spiritual humanity are concentrated, whilst upon the side of Antichrist demonic excitement may summon to its aid all the contrivances of craft and violence.

Rev 19:20. And the wild-beast was taken.In what way, is reserved for the future to make known. Since there is no mention made of any preceding battle, a spiritual process of dissolution is pre-supposed as taking place in the hostile armyespecially a separation between the ringleaders and the Antichristian host, mediated by Divine terrors. And with him the false prophet.In the crisis of the disunion between Babylon and the Beast, the False Prophet has espoused the side of the Beast; a view which is prepared by the general description in Revelation 8. It is a result of a failure to distinguish between the general judgment-picture of chap. 8. and the three subsequent pictures of judgment, when Ebrard seeks to distinguish between the pseudoprophet in the sixth world-kingdom and an analogous lying power in the eighth world-power (p. 507).

Cast alive into the lake of the fire.See Rev 20:10; Rev 20:14 and chap Rev 21:8. It is equally incorrect to apprehend Gehenna or the lake of fire as a mere internal condition of the damned, as to apprehend it purely as a cosmical region of punishment. A remark which is true concerning the Apocalyptic Heavenviz., that it has the import of a spiritual region as well as a corresponding cosmical regionapplies also, in antithesis to Heaven, in the first place to Hades, in the second place to the Abyss, and in the third place to Gehenna. Hengstenberg advances a marvellous view. The term alive, without bodily death (comp. Rev 19:21), confirms the idea that the Beast and the False Prophet are not human individuals, but purely ideal forms. A human individual cannot enter hell alive. Against which Ebrard: If the Beast and the lying Prophet be emblems of mere powers, we do not rightly know what the emblematic trait of being cast alive into the lake of fire can mean, etc. In Rev 20:12 (comp. Joh 5:29) the wicked are raised from their graves and re-united to their bodies expressly to the intent that they may be able to endure the flames of eternal torment (Rev 20:15) in their bodily natures as well as in their spirits. But, little congruity as there is between purely ideal forms and the lake of fire and brimstone, there is as little necessity to make the possession of a body a preliminary condition of Gehenna suffering. When the lake of fire is called the second death (Rev 20:14), this fearful conception stretches, on the one hand, beyond ideal forms, and on the other, beyond a corporeal suffering by fire. De Wette judiciously remarks, in respect of the distinctions between the punishment of the two Antichristian forms and the punishment of Satan: They are judged earlier than Satanwho, Rev 20:3, is bound but for a thousand yearsbecause their existence and activity have attained their end, whilst, on the other hand, Satan, by virtue of the course of development of things, still has a root in the world and must again make his appearance. De Wette has, moreover, not apprehended the term alive as corporeally as Hengstenberg most strangely takes it in express connection with ideal forms. That the Beast and the False Prophet may be apprehended as collective personalities, is not to be denied; but neither is it to be denied that they converge into symbolically significant units. In the statement that they were cast alive into the lake of fire, it is doubtless intimated that they could fall under the judgment of Gehenna whilst still on earth. Fire and brimstone, remarks Hengstenberg, as designations of hell torments, have already appeared in Rev 14:10-11. The lake of fire and brimstone is first mentioned here, and then again spoken of in Rev 20:10; Rev 20:14-15; Rev 21:8. As the fire and brimstone are suggestive of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha (comp. the remarks on Rev 14:10), the inference is obvious that the Dead Sea is referred to as the earthly reflection of hell. The term , he further observes, is found neither in the Apocalypse nor the Gospel of John, whilst the first three Gospels have it. Ebrard remarks, in opposition to this, that though the Dead Sea owed its origin to a rain of fire and brimstone, it does not burn with brimstone, but consists of brackish water. As it is as little possible to doubt the identity of the two terms, lake (or, to use a word which seems to us more applicable, pool) of fire and Gehenna, as it is to doubt the distinction between Gehenna and Sheol, our next task must be to inquire into the origin of the idea of Gehenna. See Comm. on Matthew, p. 114 [Am. Ed.]; Mark, p. 90 [Am. Ed.]. If the Dead Sea were the foundation of this figurative principle of doctrine, distinct traces of the fact would necessarily be found in the Old Testament. Besides the fire of Gehinnom, we have, Isa 30:33, a stream of brimstone, equally without reference to the Dead Sea. Comp. the article Tophet in the Lexicons; also in Winer; see also Psa 11:6. The marshes and sloughs by the side of the river of salvation (Eze 47:11) have also, doubtless, contributed to the completeness of the image. That the figure as a whole is an original idea of Johns, as a pool of fire, is evidenced by the opposite figure of the crystal sea. Moreover, the Dead Sea could not well have been employed as an image of hell, without giving rise to the idea that the people of Sodom fell under the judgment of damnation on the very occasion of their destructionan idea which the Spirit of Scripture has avoided presenting. Comp. Mat 11:23; 1Pe 3:19; see our Introduction, p. 34. [See the Excursus on Hades, p. 364 sqq.E. R. C.]

Rev 19:21. And the remnant.The Antichristian host itselfnot the whole remaining human race. They were slaini. e., according to Hengstenberg and Ebrard, they were not cast body and soul into the lake of fire, but they suffered only bodily death, whilst their souls went into Hades. They are sent into hell, observes Hengstenberg, only at the universal judgment (comp. Rev 20:12-15), that is, if they do not in the meantime, whilst they are in the intermediate state, attain unto salvation (1Pe 3:19-20) as those who have committed only the sin against the Son of Man, and not that against the Holy Ghost. It is questionable, however, whether the slaying of the whole Antichristian host should be apprehended literally or not. They are slain with the sword of the One sitting upon the horse.As this sword goeth forth out of His mouth, we should, apprehending the words literally, have to assume that they were all stricken down by the word of Christ, like Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5). But if this were the case, it would be necessary that they should all have passed through the spiritual experiences of those two. This, however, is by no means supposable; on the contrary, great masses of them are seduced, infatuated, pitiable peopleportions of them having even been impressed into the service of the Beast and the False Prophet. We therefore assume that they are slain in that they are, in a social respect, rendered absolutely null by that new order of things in the Millennial Kingdom which is instituted by the word of Christ, and, furthermore, that all those properties of theirs that have become utterly valueless (their flesh) become subjects of a metamorphosis in order to their incorporation into the new order of things. According to Dsterdieck, the slaying by the sword of Christ is but significant of a perfectly toil-less conflict [on the part of Christ]. According to Ebrard, the sword slays them as the word of omnipotence.

De Wette remarks on the entire section: This grand picture of the downfall of Antichristianity has been much weakened by the historical exegetes. Grotius finds here depicted the abolishment of idolatry by the Christian emperors of Rome, and refers Rev 19:18 to the fall of Julian in the Persian war. The interpretation of Wetstein is the most petty and insignificant: Vespasianus cum familia in Domitiano extincta, uti prius familia Csarum. Ulrich refers this judgment to the unnatural death of persecutors of the Christians. Herder: The leaders of the insurrection, Simon, the son of Gorion, and John, met with the fate here depicted. For additional particulars see Dsterdieck, p. 545. From amongst other items we quote the following: Corn. -Lapide cites authors who relate concerning Luther that he killed himself, and that his funeral was attended not only by a multitude of ravens, but also by devils that came from Holland.

Rev 20:1-5

The Millennial Kingdom

This section is by Dsterdieck assigned to the third judgment. Manifestly, however, the Millennial Kingdom is the result of the second judgment. Apart from this, Dsterdieck has a remark which is well worthy of noticeviz.: that the order of succession of the individual acts of judgment is the reverse of that in which the Antichristian forms appear. Sequence of the manifestations of Antichristianity: Satan, the Beast with the False Prophet, the Woman. Sequence of the judgments: The Woman, the Beast with the False Prophet, Satan himself. This antithetic parallelism must not, however, be reckoned amongst the organic relations of the Apocalypse, unless we behold the revelation of evil in the corruption of the Woman sketched in the features of the False Prophet; a view which does, indeed, pass muster, insomuch as the False Prophet in the form of a lamb seems to represent the Woman herself.

Rev 20:1. I saw an angel descending out of, etc.Opposed to the spirit-form of Satan there must be a spirit-form from Heaven, just as Christ, the God-man, stood opposed to Antichrist, the Beast. This spirit-form of the Angel has been most diversely interpreted (as Christ; the Holy Ghost; the Apostolate; Constantine the Great; Calixtus II.; Innocent III.; see De Wette, p. 183). As the fallen angel or star of remorse ([Verzweiflungsbusse] chap. 9) opens the pit of the abyss, so it is the Angel of consummate evangelic peace, the Angel of the developed bliss of justification, of blessedness in the Parousia of Christ, who, descending from Heaven, can cast Satan into the abyss, because he has destroyed all his points of appliance in humanity, with the exception of the one consisting of the suppressed rancor of mob-nature, which finally breaks out in Gog and Magog. We have here, therefore, an angelic form representative of the polemical victorious operation of the peace of Christa Michaelic form. This is evident from the further fact that he has the key of the abyss.In accordance with Rev 1:18, Christ has the key of death and the realm of the dead [Hades]. We have already seen that the abyss forms the deepest border-region of the realm of the dead; it is contiguous to Gehenna, which latter is not ready for the reception of its guests until the time of the universal judgment. Consequently, Christ possesses the key to the abyss likewise, and hence it is evident that the Angel is significant of a fundamental form of the operation of Christ. And a great chain.The concrete means of fettering Satanand that, completely, and for a very long time. This is the power of the Spirit of grace and truth, making the genius of malice and falsehood powerless to injure for a whole on. The key to the pit of the abyss (Rev 9:1) must not be confounded with the key to the abyss simply. Nothing is more erroneous than, with Ewald, to identify the fallen star (Rev 9:1 sqq.) with this Angel. We translate in his hand, instead of on his hand (), for it is not good German to say, a chain on his hand.[1] As a matter of course, the chain is not all contained within the closed hand.

Rev 20:2. And he laid hold on the dragon.Great and irresistible turn of sentiments in the spirit-world, concretely expressedthe more so since the consummate spiritual operations likewise become real dynamic operations. That [or the] ancient serpent.See Syn. View. Comp. Rev 12:9. And bound him a thousand years.The thousand years are a symbolic number, denoting the on of transition. The millennial binding of Satan is the preliminary condition of the Millennial Kingdom. Those who deny the demonic origin of sin, deriving sin exclusively from the sensual or material nature of man, here meet with a mighty contradiction to their theory. But, on the other hand, those who refer all evil to Satan cannot explain the loosing of the latter.

Rev 20:3. And cast him into the abyss.Rev 9:1; Rev 11:7; Rev 17:8. A more general idea, is presented in 2Pe 2:4, where it is declared that the fallen angels have been cast down to Tartarus, in chains of darkness, held fast or preserved unto judgment. For, first, Tartarus is a more general term for the whole sub-terrestrial region; secondly, the term is indicative of a hurling away with a constant tendency toward Tartarus; thirdly, the bonds of darkness are those self-perplexings, self-enchainings of evil which impel toward Tartarus; fourthly, the judgment is in prospective here only as a certain future. The various statements concerning the abode of the Devil and bad spirits may readily, if pressed as to the letter of the Scripture, be involved in contradictions, as has been evidenced by Strauss, for instance (see the authors Positive Dogmatik, p. 572). But as we must needs distinguish between the dwelling-places and spheres of operation of spirits, so likewise is it necessary to distinguish between the different stages of their history. The abyss may indeed be regarded as the proper dwelling-place of Satan and the fallen angels, inasmuch as it, as the specific region of God-estranged rancor and grief, or despair, denotes the transition from the realm of the dead to hell, or from the sadness of death to damnation. The realm of the dead is only more tormented through the operations of demons than the human world (brooks [E. V.: floods] of Belial [Psa 18:4]); but hell is prepared for the Devil and his angels as the region of final punitive suffering (Mat 25:41). But as Satan is not at home with himself, neither does he stay at home (Judges 6); by nature he is excursive and rambling (Job 2:2), given to appearing and disappearing, fond of roving about (hence Azazel)i. e., modes of existence and spheres of operation are to be distinguished especially here. In this relation, Scripture distinguishes Heaven as the pure domain of spirits (Job 1, 2; Revelation 7; Luk 10:18); earth, especially the atmospheric sphere, as the sphere of sympathetic and antipathetic worldmoods,and in reference to this sphere of operation, it distinguishes the forms of the serpent, or hypocritical craft (Matthew 4; 2Co 11:14), and the roaring lion of terroristic might (1Pe 5:8; Revelation 8). The import of the judgment upon Antichrist is that Satan is cast entirely out of the sphere of earth for a thousand years, and shut up in his true home, the abyss.

Shut and sealed over him.Expressive of the inviolable Divine determination, manifest in the equally unshakable Divine operation. Likewise an antitype of the impotent sealing of Christs grave on the part of hell and the world.After these he must be loosed.This also is a Divine decreea decree, however, conditioned by the ethical design of causing the remnants of evil, of heathenism, in the sphere of Christs Kingdom, to appear, and thereby destroying them.A little time.Little from the stand-point of triumphant faith. See Rev 17:10.

Rev 20:4-5. Fundamental Traits of the Millennial Kingdom.

And I saw thrones.According to Dsterdieck, the do not come under consideration as kings thrones (Eichhorn, Zllig), but only as judges seats (Heinrich, Ewald, De Wette, Hengstenberg, etc.), as is shown (he declares) by the prefigurement of Dan 7:9,[2] 22, and the , expressly mentioned in our passage also. But what then is the force of the words: They shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him [Rev 20:6]? Christ Himself also is amongst the sitters on the thrones as their centre. Moreover, the can be understood only in the Old Testament sense, as significant of a princely judicial rule, since the special judgment upon the Antichristian world has been previously executed. It is highly characteristic that the thrones constitute the foreground of the picture. They are significant of the beginning of the Church Triumphant in this worldthe visible appearance of the Kingdom of God. Distinct as is the presentment of the thrones themselves, of their occupants it is indefinitely said: and they sat down [seated themselves] upon them. Who are meant by they? According to Beza, Eichhorn, Ebrard, et al., the martyrs mentioned further on; this view is opposed by De Wette and Dsterdieck. The context also is against it. First, John saw the thrones and those who seated themselves upon them, and then the beheaded ones who revived and reigned with Christ. We must not forget, however, that Christ has not come alone from Heaven, but that He was accompanied by a chosen army (Rev 19:14). Without doubt, the occupants of the thrones are those who form the peculiar escort of the Lamb (Rev 14:4); who even in this world, as sealed ones, constituted the kernel of the Church of God (Revelation 7), the proper centre of which is formed by Gods men of revelation [i. e. Gods revealers], particularly the Apostles (ch Rev 21:14). In considering their position toward Christ, however, something more than mere martyr faithfulness or even mere historic dignity as Prophets or Apostles comes in viewnamely, the endowment and destination of the Father, the special electness lying at the base of the special glory. These mysterious co-regents of Christ (comp. also Mat 5:9) have been very variously interpreted (God and Christ; the Angels; the Apostles; the Martyrs; the saints, Dan 7:22; the twenty-four Elders [De Wette and Dsterdieck]; Hengstenberg, the twelve Apostles and the twelve Patriarchs). Here, however, we have no longer to do with forms that are partially typical [the Elders]; we will simply say: those who in a special sense have been inwardly endowed as joint-heirs with Christ, seated themselves upon the thrones.

And judgment was given unto them.This cannot possibly refer to Rev 20:1-3 and Rev 19:20-21, as Ebrard maintains, since in those passages the sentence of judgment was decided by war, and the execution of judgment was a very brief process. We should hardly expect that Antichrist or Satan himself would have to be sentenced through a trial by jury.

The judgment may be regarded primarily as a two-fold decisiona decision concerning those who are still living (who were not in the Antichristian army), as to whether their lives shall be preserved throughout the thousand years; and a decision concerning those who were beheaded, as to how far they are worthy of being called to the first resurrection. Nevertheless, the antithesis of life and death is now, in a high degree, dynamically, psychically and ethically modified (see Isa 65:20), i. e. dying and reviving are effects which proceed from within. In general, however, the entire on is to be conceived of as an on of separations and eliminations in an ethical and a cosmical sense, separations and eliminations such as are necessary to make manifest and to complete the ideal regulations of life. Of judgments of damnation between the judgment upon Antichrist and the judgment upon Satan, there can be no question; the reference can be only to a critical government and management, preparatory to the final consummation. The whole on is a crisis which occasions the visible appearance of the Heaven on earth; the whole on is the great Last Day. We may even conceive of the mutiny which finally breaks out as a result of these separations, for a sort of protest on the part of the wicked was hinted at by Christ in His Eschatological Discourse (Mat 25:44), and the most essential element of the curse in hell is the continuance of revolt, the gnashing of teeth. To the degree in which this can decrease, torment can approach indifference. Opinions concerning this judgment are marvellously at variance.

According to Augustine, the reference is to a judgment upon the old earth: Sedes Prpositorum et ipsi Prpositi intelligendi sunt, per quos ecclesia gubernatur. According to Ho, on the other hand, the judgment relates to Heaven itself, as a theological disclosure as to the fate of the souls of the martyrs and others in Heaven, during the thousand years. According to Piscat., De Wette, et al., the probable idea is that the judgment now held has to decide as to who are worthy to have part in the first resurrection and the Millennial Kingdom.

And (I saw) the souls of them, etc.Two main points modify the entire picture: a. The thrones; b. The souls of the martyrs. As these were cut off from the most lively life by a violent death, they abode nearer to life than other dead persons; their more intimate communion with Christ produced the resurrection principle within them; and as men upon whom the ban of the world pre-eminently fell, they must be pre-eminently honored in the Kingdom of God [als die vorzugsweise Gechteten mssen sie die vorzugsweise Geachteten des Reiches Gottes sein]. As beheaded, they also accompany Christ from the other world, and though it cannot be said that their category precisely coincides with that of the occupants of the thrones, neither can it be affirmed that they may not be amongst those enthroned ones. The Seer distinguishes three categories of the participants in the first resurrection, or those that are Christs in His Parousia (1Co 15:23). First, the sitters on the thrones; secondly, the martyrs generally, who were beheaded for Christs sake; thirdly, all the faithful of the last time, who have worshipped neither the Beast nor his image, nor have assumed his mark. These are the macrobii of the last time, who sleep not, but are changed (1Co 15:51-52; 2Co 5:4-5; 1Th 4:17). Over and above these, as a fourth category, are the remnants of the old humanity that have not belonged to the Antichristian army; the inhabitants of the domain of Gog and Magog, who find themselves only in the periphery of the renewing crisis. It was perhaps on account of the third class that the Seer employed the term . But even if this is, with reason, made emphatic: they revivedlived again (=, De Wette), it does not prove that we should regard the last [third] class (consisting of those who are alive at the time of Christs appearing), with Dsterd., et al., as having likewise died in the mean time. The expression, [Rev 20:5] but the rest of the dead, finds its antithesis in the martyrs; and the transformation, as well as the awakening, shall lead to the first resurrection.

Rev 20:5. The rest of the dead, etc.That is, those not pre-eminently animated by the principle of the life of Christ, not led toward the first resurrection (Rom 8:17 sqq.; Eph 1:19; Php 3:11), and therefore a whole on deeper under the power of death.

This is the first resurrection.With these words the Seer constitutes that entire resurrection-process which begins with the Parousia of Christ, a distinct dogmatical conception. We have already discussed the gloriousness and naturalness of this conception. The manifold evasions of this idea, this Christian hope, seem like a general horrornot, however, a horror vacui, but a horror vit et spiritus.

In regard to the thousand years, the number, as has already been observed, is symbolical, like all other apocalyptic numbers; it denotes an on, and is specifically the transition-on between this present world and the world to come. The Jews indicate the duration of the Messianic Kingdom by different numbers; according to R. Elieser, however, the days of the Messiah amount to a thousand years; this opinion is based upon the statement, Isa 63:4, the day of vengeance was in my mind [E. V. is in mine heart], and the further declaration, Psa 90:4, a thousand years in Thy sight are as yesterday, etc. The weightier reason of the Ep. Barnab. c. xv. might be added to this, that as God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh day, so in six thousand years all things would be consummated and in the last chiliad a great world-Sabbath would be celebrated. (De Wette.)

The slavish dread of Chiliasm felt by the Old Catholic Church and the medival Theology, amounting to an avoidance of the misunderstood Apocalypse itself and a dread of the historical sense of its text, whilst the Old Catholic Church and medival Theology were themselves sunk deep in material Chiliasm, has found expression in the most diverse interpretations, from Augustine down to Hengstenberg; there is a maximum of excuse for the beginning of the series, but scarcely a minimum for the end of it. On the course of the exegeses see pp. 63 sqq. Likewise Dsterdieck, pp. 554 sqq. In this exegetical party, the elder Lutheran Theology continues most involved in the toils of medival tradition. The slavish Theology of the letter has found a support in the view of John Gerhard in particular (Dsterd., p. 556). The Apocalypse, Gerhard declares, is a deutero-canonical bookthe Kingdom of Christ will never on earth, not even at the end of the days, be one of external sovereignty (a sentiment dictated, doubtless, by a misunderstanding of Article XVII. of the Augsburg Confession)all the dead are to arise in one daythere is to be but one general resurrection of the dead at the Parousia of the Lord. Accordingly, it is further stated, the beginning of the Millennial Kingdom probably falls in the time of ConstantineGog and Magog are to be regarded as significant of the Turks. A partiality for this prejudiced tradition can in general be regarded only as the sad fruit of partyism. In regard to the view of Hengstenberg in particular, we refer primarily to the notices of Apocalyptic Literature, pp. 69 sq., 71.3 The starting point of Hengstenbergs view is by Rinck (Die Zeichen der letzten Zeit, p. 333) declared to be the assumption that the Beast can be understood only as the Pagan, not as the Christian, State. This assumption is a proof that Hengstenberg had no just conception of the idea of Antichristianitywhich cannot possibly be a product of pure heathenism4and no idea of the fall of an external State or Church. And yet according to the same commentator, Satan himself is at last to break forthor rather has broken forthimmediately, (in a worse mode, therefore, than in the form of the Beast) in the midst of Christendom.

Many arguments employed by Hengstenberg in his article entitled, The so-called Millennial Kingdom, to be found in the second volume of his commentary, have a very ad hominem sound; for instance, the argument from the inscription on the dome of the royal castle. We are justified in assuming that Hengstenberg was more concerned for the credit of Christian Rome than for the credit of the Christian State (which appears not merely in German, but also in French, Romance, and Slavonic forms), in declaring that the Woman also should be apprehended exclusively as Pagan Rome. Furthermore, the text of the Apocalypse constantly suffers violence at the hands of Hengstenberg. The chaining of Satan (Rev 20:1-3) ill admits of an assignment to the Middle Ageshence he explains: Satan is able to ensnare individual souls during this time, but not the nations as a whole. As if the individual souls of many princes and popes had not had a highly decisive influence in the working of their political and hierarchical systemsMachiavellism, the Inquisition, Dragonnades and the like. Again, the first resurrection, according to the same expositor, can not be apprehended as a bodily resurrection; it merely denotes the translation of the souls spoken of into that glorious intermediate condition in the other world, where they lived and reigned with Christ. , he affirms, is not equivalent to . But, manifestly, this coming to life is distinct from the blessed living-on in the other world (chs. 7 and 14), and prominence is given to it as antithetic to the condition of the dead who did not become alive again during the thousand years. Hengstenberg arrived at a much wished-for result by dating the thousand years from Charlemagne; the loosing of Satan might thus be assigned to the time of the French Revolution and the movements connected therewith (see Hengst. 2., pp.367 and 375 sqq. [Ger.]). A series of kindred and opposite constructions of the Millennial Kingdom see noted in De Wette, p. 189; Dsterd., p. 555.

According to Dsterdieck (pp. 554 sqq.), the unbiased determination of the exegetical result of the text, and the theological estimate of it, based Upon the analogy of Scripture, are two different things. The Millennial Kingdom falls, according to him also, in the time immediately preceding the universal judgmentbut he seems to be unable to reconcile the developed Apocalyptic Eschatology with the less developed Eschatology of the other Scriptures of the New Testament. If, however, the one day of the resurrection be regarded as a literal day, rather than as the symbolical term for a period; if one general resurrection of all the dead, in one day, as an immediate wonder of omnipotence, be regarded as more credible than the profound, organically modified idea of the gradational and hence double resurrection; and if a sudden annihilation of all evil at once, be considered more probable than the abolition of it by a succession of judgments;the same method of interpretation should, if consistency be at all regarded, be employed in the case of the other portions of Holy Writ, though this would involve a reduction of the living Scripture either to the orthodoxy of the Seventeenth, or the rationalism of the Eighteenth Centuryor a taking up with a compound of positive elements and ideal descriptions.

[NOTE ON THE FIRST RESURRECTION]

By the American Editor

[The writer believes that he cannot better begin this note than by the presentation of the views of two distinguished writers on the subject,the one advocating the doctrine of a literal resurrection, the other defending the so-called spiritual view.

Alford, on Rev 20:4-5, thus comments:

It will have been long ago anticipated by the readers of this Commentary, that I cannot consent to distort words from their plain sense and chronological place in the prophecy, on account of any considerations of difficulty, or any risk of abuses which the doctrine of the Millennium may bring with it. Those who lived next to the Apostles, and the whole Church for 300 years, understood them in the plain literal sense; and it is a strange sight in these days to see expositors who are amongst the first in reverence of antiquity, complacently casting aside the most cogent instance of consensus which primitive antiquity presents. As regards the text itself, no legitimate treatment of it will extort what is known as the spiritual interpretation now in fashion. If in a passage where two resurrections are mentioned, where certain at the first, and the rest of the only at the end of a specified period after that first,if in such a passage the first resurrection may be understood to mean spiritual rising with Christ, while the second means literal rising from the grave; then there is an end of all significance in language, and Scripture is wiped out as a definite testimony to anything. If the first resurrection is spiritual then so is the second, which I suppose none will be hardy enough to maintain;5 but if the second is literal, then so is the first, which in common with the whole primitive Church and many of the best modern expositors, I do maintain, and receive as an article of faith and hope.

Brown, whose work on the Second Advent is, confessedly, one of the ablest that has ever been published on his side of the question, devotes an entire chapter to the discussion of the Millennial Resurrection. It is of course impossible to reproduce the entire argument. The following, however, is presented as a perfectly fair synopsis thereof:

If the question then be, Was this celebrated passage (Rev 20:4-6) designed to announce A literal and general resurrection of the Saints? The following appear to me to be strong

PRESUMPTIONS AGAINST IT

1. It is very strange that the resurrection of the righteous a thousand years before the wicked, if it be a revealed truth, should be directly and explicitly announced in one passage only.

2. If this was to be the chosen place for announcing such a prior resurrection, it is surely reasonable to expect that a clear and unambiguous revelation of it would be made. (Such a revelation he denies was made in the passage.)

3. If a resurrection of the righteous in generalas distinguished from the wickedbe the true sense of this prophecy, the description is very unlike the thing to be described. It is not in the least like any other description of that event in the New Testament. Every other description of the resurrection and glory of the saints as such is catholic in its character, while this is limited.

NINE INTERNAL EVIDENCES THAT THE MILLENNIAL RESURRECTION IS NOT LITERAL BUT FIGURATIVE6

1. If the first resurrection mean rising from the grave in immortal and glorified bodies, we do not need the assurance that on such the second death hath no power (v. 6), or in other words, that they shall not perish everlastingly. Can it be believed that the Holy Spirit means nothing more than such a truism? But suppose that the first resurrection signifies a glorious condition of mortal men, and the promise becomes intelligible.

2. There are but two alternatives in the prophecyeither to have part in the first resurrection, or to be under the power of the second death. Into which of these classes are we to put the myriads of men who are to people the earth, in flesh and blood during the millennium?
3. The express mention of how long this life and reign with Christ will last, viz.: a thousand years, if meant to inform us what a long period of earthly prosperity the Church is yet destined to enjoy, is intelligible and cheering. But to say that the risen and glorified Church is to live and reign with Christ for a period of a thousand years, is totally unlike the language of Scripture in every other place.

4. By making the party that live and reign with Christ a thousand years to he the entire Church of God risen from their graves, we are forced to do violence to the whole subsequent context. Thus(1) The rest of the dead must be expected to live again in the same bodily sense when the thousand years are finished. But we read of no bodily resurrection at all on the expiring of this period. Satan shall then be loosed out of prison, and when we consider the work he has to do, the little season of his deceiving the nations can hardly be overstretched by extending it to a century or so. This first millennial period is to be filled up with something else than bodily resurrections. It will indeed be employed in the raising of a wicked party. We read of no bodily resurrection until after its expiration: (2) None but the wicked would remain to be judged in the last judgment, which is inconsistent with the implication of the opening of the Book of Life (Rev 5:12).

5. (This argument is given in the language of Gipps, substantially as follows): The opening of the Book of Life (Rev 5:2) signifies the manifestation of those who are written in it. It is inconceivable that this manifestation can take place one moment before what is called the opening of the Book of Life. But the manifestation of the Sons of God will take place at their (bodily) resurrection, Rom 8:19; Rom 8:23. Their bodily resurrection, therefore, will not take place until the general resurrection of (Rev 5:2).

6. (Also in the language of Gipps): The omission of any declaration as to the sea, death and the grave, giving up the dead at the first resurrection, and the making such a declaration respecting the dead in Rev 20:13, convinces me that the first resurrection is not that of the Saints, and also that the dead in Rev 20:12-13, include all mankind, both the saints and the ungodly. In every other part of the Word of God the information given concerning the resurrection of the saints is not only much more frequent, but also much more explicit, than concerning the resurrection of the ungodly. I feel convinced, therefore, that in this portion of the Scripture, if it were intended to foretell a resurrection of the saints distinct from that of the ungodly, much more explicit information would be given concerning the former than concerning the latter.

7. The clause This is the first resurrection (Rev 20:5), which is thought to prove it literal, seems to me, if it prove anything, to prove the reverse. It is reasonablesay the premillennialiststo suppose that if the second or last resurrection be literal, the first will be so alsodiffering from the second only in time. Unfortunately fur this way of reasoning, what is said in the verse immediately following contradicts it: Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection; on such the second death hath no power (Rev 20:6). Here the first resurrection and the second death are intentionally brought together and contrasted. Is the first death, then, of the same nature with the second? Does one merely precede the other? No: the first death is that of the body, the second that of both body and soul; the first death is common to the righteous and the wicked, the second is the everlasting portion of the wicked and of them alone. To suffer the first death for Christ in made the ground (not, of course, the meritorious ground) of exemption from the power of the second death (see Rev 2:10-11). Now as exemption from the power of the second death is here made to rest upon a certain character, namely, fidelity to Christ even to death, and in our millennial chapter exemption from the power of the same second death is made to rest upon participation in the first resurrection, is it not reasonable to conclude that this first resurrection is meant to signify a certain character in the present life, and not the possession of bodily resurrection and glory? To my mind this view of the first resurrection is put beyond doubt by the following words: Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection. I cannot see what important information is conveyed by these words if the first resurrection mean a restoration to bodily life. To tell us that saints risen from the dead, and reigning in glorified bodies with Christ, are holy, seems to me to be very unlike the language of Scripture every where else, and very superfluous.

8. It is a fatal objection to the literal sense of this prophecy, as announcing the bodily resurrection of all dead, and the change of all living saints, that it is exclusively a martyr-scenethe prophet beholding simply a resurrection of the slain, whereas this very circumstance eminently favors the figurative sense. The literal sense is utterly inadequate to express the resurrection of the whole Church of God bodily from the grave; the figurative sense is in consonance with the figurative language of Scripture (comp. Rev 11:11; Eze 37:12-14; Hos 6:2; Isa 26:19; Isa 26:14), with that of the best writers in every language and age, and expresses a conception worthy of the Spirit of God to dictate.

9. The literal sense offers no consistent explanation of the judgment that was given unto the slain martyrs. This judgment was clearly that referred to in Rev 6:9 to Rev 11:7 If this be correct, of course the slain and those who slew them, must be taken in the same sense. If the judgment is to be given to the martyrs personally at the millennium, their blood must also be personally avenged on them that dwell on the earth. If the martyrs are to rise bodily from their graves in order that judgment may be personally given to them, then their persecutors must be raised that vengeance may be rendered to them.

The writer adopts the view of this celebrated passage that is advocated by Alfordthe view that has been held in the Church from the earliest ages. It seems to be undeniable that this is the view that results from the normal interpretation of the passage,a view that should not be set aside but for most cogent reasons. Whilst it is admitted that there is much apparent force in many of the considerations urged by Brown, it is submitted that they are not of sufficient force to overthrow the normal interpretation.
In continuance it should be remarked that the normal interpretation is in line with, and gives special and beautiful significance to, many otherwise inexplicable declarations in the word of God. An anonymous writer in a work entitled Creation and Redemption (Edinburgh: Thomas Laurie. 1866. Second Ed.) thus comments:

It is incumbent on us here to say a few words on the subject of the First Resurrection, for there is a general impression that the belief in it rests solely upon this passage, (Rev 20:6). But this is a great mistake. The truth of a resurrection of some at a different time from that of the general resurrection, is evident from Scripture, independent of this passage in the Apocalypse. Omitting the passages from the Old Testament Scriptures, sustained by the promises of which the Old Testament worthies, as St. Paul says, suffered and served God in the hope of obtaining a better resurrection (Heb 11:35), we will state as briefly as may be the conclusion to which we are led by the words of the Lord and His Apostles.

Our Lord makes a distinction between the resurrection which some shall be counted worthy to attain to, and some not, Luk 20:3; Luk 20:5. St. Paul says there is a resurrection out from among the dead () to attain which he strove with all his might as the prize to be gained, Php 3:11. He also expressly tells us, that while as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive; yet it shall not be all at once, but every man in his own order; Christ the first fruits; afterwards they that are Christs at His coming. It is particularly to be remarked, that wherever the resurrection of Christ, or of His people, is spoken of in Scripture, it is a resurrection from the dead; and wherever the general resurrection is spoken of, it is the resurrection of the dead. This distinction, though preserved in many instances in the English translation, is too frequently omitted; but in the Greek the one is always coupled with the preposition , out of, and the other is without it; and in the Vulgate it is rendered by mortuis or ex mortuis, as distinct from resurrectio mortuorum. In Rom 8:11, The Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead, it is , mortuis. So in Rom 10:7; Eph 1:20; Heb 13:20; 1Pe 1:3; 1Pe 1:21. So Lazarus was raised , Joh 12:1; Joh 12:9. Our Lord, in His reply to the Sadducees, made the distinction between the general resurrection of the dead, and the resurrection which some should be accounted worthy to attain to. The children of this age () marry, but they who shall be accounted worthy to attain that , and the resurrection from the dead ( ), shall not marry (Luk 20:34-35). St. Paul, when he spoke of a resurrection to which he strove to attain (Php 3:8; Php 3:11), and to which he was with all his might pressing forwards, as the high prize to gain which he was agonizing, and for which he counted all else loss, as if one preposition was not enough to indicate his meaning, uses it doubled, . Si quomodo occurram ad resurrectionem, qu est ex mortuis. If St. Paul had been looking only to the general resurrection, he need not have given himself any trouble, or made any sacrifice to attain to that; for to it, all, even Judas and Nero, must come; but to attain to the First Resurrection he had need to press forward for the prize of that calling. And thus in his argument for the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15 (1Co 15:12; 1Co 15:21), when he speaks of the resurrection generally, he speaks of the resurrection of the dead, (); but when he speaks of our Lords resurrection, it is , from the dead. And he marks the time when Christs people shall be raised from the dead, namely, at Christs coming, every man. in his own order; 1st, Christ; 2d, Christs people; 3d. all the remainder, at some other period, which he terms the end, when the last enemy, death, is to be destroyed, put an end to (1Co 15:23-26). And it follows as a matter of course, that if those who are Christs are to be raised from the dead at His coming, and if He comes previous to the destruction of Antichrist, and to the millennium, this first resurrection must be at least a thousand years before the general resurrection.E. R. C.]

Footnotes:

[1][In the text of the translation, the form of the Greek ( =upon his hand) is preserved. The idea seems to be that the chain was, not held the hand, but looped over it.E. R. C.]

[2][The E. V. has here (Dan 7:9) till the thrones were cast down; the Germ. has bis dass Sthle gesetzt wurden,=until seats (or thrones) were set.Tr.]

[3]On Kraussold (Das tausendjhrige Reich) see Dsterdieck, p. 658. Lutharde, in his work entitled, Die Offenb. Joh., recognizes the futurity of the Millennial Kingdom. Grau, on the other hand, in his lecture on the Contents and Import of the Revelation of John (in Zur Einfhrung in das Schriftthum N. T.), deals in generalities previous to Revelation 20.

[4]Hengstenberg it is manifest, has entirely lost the idea of Antichristianity by his Eschatology. If Antichristianity is summed up in the Beast, it is also abolished in company with the Beast. Consequently, there can no longer be any Antichristianity. And therefore, according to Hengstenberg, the final outbreak of Satan results in a new heathenism in the original sense of the term. But the world can not fall back into pure heathenism at the end of the days; Antichristianity can be formed only from elements of decomposed ChristianityChristianity that is converted into mighty lies (2 Thessalonians 2).

[5] [Whitby, Faber and Brown, all distinguish between the second resurrection implied, Rev 20:5, in the words the rest of the dead, etc., and the general resurrection brought to view in Rev 20:12-13. Whilst they admit that this general resurrection is literal, they contend that both the first and second millennial resurrections are spiritual,the former signifying a resuscitation of the martyr spirit at the beginning of the thousand years: the latter, the re-vivification of the spirit of evil in the hosts of Gog and Magog.

Barnes agrees with these commentators save in the last particular. He understands, however, by the rest of the dead the ordinarily pious. He writes: But the rest of the dead. In contradistinction from the beheaded martyrs, and from those who had kept themselves pure in the times of great temptation. The phrase rest of the dead here would most naturally refer to the same general class which was before mentionedthe pious dead. The meaning is, that the martyrs would be honored as if they were raised up and the others not; that is, that special respect would be shown to their principles, their memory, and their character. In other words, special honor would be shown to a spirit of eminent piety during that period, above the common and ordinary piety which has been manifested in the church. The rest of the deadthe pious deadwould indeed be raised up and rewarded, but they would occupy comparatively humble places, as if they did not partake in the exalted triumphs when the world should be subdued to the Saviour. Their places in honor, in rank, and in reward, would be beneath that of those who in fiery times had maintained unshaken fidelity to the cause of truth, Lived not. On the word lived, see Notes on ver 4. That is, they lived not during that period in the peculiar sense in which it is said (Rev 20:4,) that the eminent saints and martyrs lived. They did not come into remembrance; their principles were not what then characterized the church; they did not see, as the martyrs did, their principles and mode of life in the ascendency, and consequently they had not the augmented happiness and honor which the more eminent saints and martyrs had.E. R. C.]

[6][Brown thus disposes of a common objection (first urged by Whitby) to the literal view: It is frequently urged that because souls () were seen in this vision, and no mention is made of bodies, it cannot be a bodily resurrection that is meant. But this is to mistake what the Apostle saw in the vision. He did not see a resurrection of souls. He saw the souls of them that were slain: that is, he had a vision of the martyrs themselves in the state of the deadafter they were slain, and just before their resurrection. Then he saw them rise: They livednot their souls, but themselves.E. R. C.]

[7][Is it not rather probable that was used in the sense in which it was employed, Mat 7:1; Joh 9:39; Rom 2:2-3; and that the sentence means, that to he saints, as kings, was given the authority to judge?E. R. C.]

[30]Rev 19:17. [Crit. Eds. give with A. P. 1, et al; it is om. by B.*E. R. C.]

[31]Rev 19:17. [Crit. Eds. read with . A. B*. P., et al., instead of E, R. C.]

[32]Rev 19:17. [Crit. Eds. give with . A. B*. P. instead of with 1, 36, 49, 79.E. R. C.]

[33]Rev 19:18. [These articles do not occur in any Cod., nor are they required by the English idiom.E. R. C.]

[34]Rev 19:18. [Crit. Eds. generally give . with . A. B*. P. et al.E. R. C.]

[35]Rev 19:19. Codd. . A. B*. give the article before . [The reference, doubtless, is to the war predicted chs.Rev 16:14; Rev 17:14.E. R. C.]

[36]Rev 19:20. [Lach., Treg., Tisch. (8th Ed.) read with . P.; Alf. brackets before with A.; Tisch. (1859) reads with B*.E. R. C.]

[37]Rev 20:2. Cod. A. gives the nominative . Codd. B, et al. give the accusative, which is more in accordance with the text. [Lach., Alf., Treg., Tisch. give the nom. with A.; the acc. is supported by . B., et alE. R. C.]

[38] Rev 20:3. Lach. [Alf., Treg.] and Tisch. [1859] give in acc. with A. B. et al. Cod. gives the article both times with perfect propriety. [Tisch. (8th Ed ) gives ; the pronoun before , and also the article before , with E. R. C.]

[39] Rev 20:3. Codd. A. B., et al. omit after .

[40] Rev 20:3. The Rec. is adopted instead of the reading . [So read Lach., Alf., Treg. Tisch. (8th Ed.), with . A.; Gb., Sz., Tisch. (1859) give with B*.E. R. C.]

[41]Rev 19:3. [Crit. Eds. omit with . A. B*.E. R. C.]

[42] Rev 20:4. [The force of can be presented only by the phrase sat down. Lange translates seated themselves.E. R. C.]

[43] Rev 20:4. [Crit. Eds. read with . A. B*. et al.E. R. C.]

[44] Rev 20:4. [Crit. Eds. generally omit after in acc. with . A. B*., Vulg., et al.E. R. C.]

[45] Rev 20:4. The article before should be omitted. [The article occurs in B*.; it is omitted, however, by Crit. Eds. with . A. et al.E. R. C.]

[46] Rev 20:5. [Lach., Alf., Tisch., omit the copula with A., Clem., Am., Fuld., Tol, Lips.; Treg. reads with B.* 1, 38, 91, 95, Memph.E. R. C.]

[47] Rev 20:5. [Crit. Eds. read with A. B., Vulg., et al.; is without authority.E. R. C.]

[48][See foot-notes on pages 3, 58, and 62.E. R. C.]

[49][See Note on the Future Advent of Christ, pp. 339 sqq.E. R. C.]

[50][The slowness of invention which Lange here attributes to the Devil is more in harmony with the character attributed to that personage in numerous popular German tales,in which he appears as a sort of Deutscher Michel, being frequently outwitted and imposed upon by sharp practicers of earththan with the exalted intellect with which we usually conceive of him as endowed.Tr.]

[51] [The Am. Ed. deems it inexpedient to continue in this portion of the work his Abstract of Views.E. R. C.]

[52][Wordsworth explains the of Rev 19:4 as the glorified life with Christ after martyrdom, and the of Rev 19:5 as spiritual life begun in baptism and completed at the death of the body.E. R. C.]

[53][Augustine himself, probably, held the view that the thousand years were literal, to terminate with the sixth chiliad of the worlds existence.E. R. C.]

[54][A similar theory, indeed the same with specific variations was propounded by Prof. Bush in a work on the Millennium published in New York in 1832.E. R. C.]

[55][The elder Turretin, P. Mastricht, J Marckius, Light foot, Brightman, and Usher, all teach that the Millennium is past. The continental Theologians suggest as possible eras of its beginning, without deciding which is correct, the Incarnation, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, the destruction of Jerusalem, the era of Constantine. Marckius thinks that it may have begun in increased measure at each one of these in succession. These Theologians seem to regard the binding as a general weakening of the power of Satan. Lightfoot adopts the view that the origin is to be placed in the first proclamation of the gospel to the Gentiles by Paul and Barnabas, and that the binding refers, not to the power of Satan over the Church, but to his influence over the nations. He writes: There is not a word here of the devils binding that he should not disturb the Church, but of the devils binding that he should not deceive the nations. These all agree that the duration of the period was (or was about) one thousand literal years.E. R. C.]

[56][Elliott writes: Vitringa, however, who alludes to Whitbys as a work just published, makes brief citations from two earlier writers, Conrad of Mantua and Carolus Gallus, as expressive of the same general view.E. R. C.]

[57][Bush judiciously remarks on this declaration of Whitby: This may be questioned. These writers have modified the creed of the ancients on this subject, without renouncing it. The views of Mede, as expressed by himself, are as follows: What the quality of this reign should be, which is so singularly differenced from the reign of Christ hitherto, is neither safe nor easy to determine, further than that it should be the reign of our Saviours victory over His enemies, wherein Satan being bound up from deceiving the nations any more, till the time of His reign be fulfilled, the Church should consequently enjoy a most blissful peace and happy security from the heretical apostasies and calamitous sufferings of former times; but here (if any where) the known shipwrecks of those who have been too venturous should make us most wary and careful, that we admit nothing into our imaginations which may cross or impeach any catholic tenet of the Christian faith, as also to beware of gross and carnal conceits of Epicurean happiness misbeseeming the spiritual purity of Saints. If we conceit any delights, let them be spiritual. The presence of Christ in this Kingdom will no doubt be glorious and evident, yet I dare not so much as imagine (which some ancients seem to have thought) that it will be a visible converse on earth. Yet, we grant, He will appear and be visibly revealed from heaven; especially for the calling and gathering of His ancient people, for whom in the days of old He did so many wonders. Mede believed that Christ would appear literally and gloriously for the establishment of the Millennium, and that in a special sense He would reign throughout the period. In so believing, he held the essential elements of the pre-millennial hypothesis.E. R. C.]

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

CONTENTS

The Overthrow of Satan. The Devil is seized, and bound for a thousand Years. Christ’s Reign with his Saints. Satan for a short Time loosed. The general Judgment. The Devil cast into the Lake of Fire, where the Beast and the False Prophet are. All cast into Hell, whose Names are not found written in the Book of Life.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

(1) And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. (2) And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, (3) And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.

We have here the judgment of Satan, and his being chained for a thousand years. And from that prison, be is not to be loosed, until the thousand years are expired. I pray the Reader to observe, the beautiful order of things, in this divine procedure. First, the beast, and the false prophet, were to be cast into hell. That we saw, done, in the foregoing Chapter. Next comes Satan’s imprisonment. And that is accomplished in the opening of this Chapter. But, though there spoken of as done, because John’s vision these things were so represented; yet the events have not yet been done. The beast still reigns. The false prophet still exerciseth his delusion. And Satan never more artfully deceived, than he doth now, in the present hour. But these prophecies are to be accomplished in their due course. And here they are recorded in their proper order. And a beautiful, and blessed account it is, taken in one grand whole; and enough to warm the affections of God’s redeemed ones, into an ardent love to the Person of Christ, when God the Holy Ghost graciously becomes our Teacher. I beg the Reader’s attention to it, in order,

First. Here is an Angel seen by John, coming down from heaven, with a key in his hand, and a chain. Now we cannot be at a loss to know who this is; it can be no other than the Lord Jesus Christ. For not only must it be Him, and can be no other, because all power is his in heaven and earth, and he hath the keys of hell and death, Rev 1:18 . but because the personal hatred the devil hath to Christ, and the opposition Satan hath made to Christ and his kingdom, renders it peculiarly suitable and proper, that he should have his punishment immediately from Christ himself.

Secondly. Here is the power of Christ manifested, in seizing the old serpent, and binding him, and casting him into the bottomless pit, and the time limited for his confinement.

Thirdly. Here is also an account of a time of liberation; for the devil when he shall be at liberty for a little season, and when, as it should seem, he shall again deceive the nations, though but shortly.

Now some have thought, that this confinement of Satan began, when Christ cast out the devil from the bodies of men, in the days of Christ’s flesh, and of consequence, the term is expired. And in proof of this opinion, they quote those scriptures, where it is said, that for this purpose, the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the woks of the devil, 1Jn 3:8 . And Christ himself said, that he beheld Satan, as lightning fall from heaven, Luk 10:18-19 . But to these things it may be said, that the purpose of Christ’s coming, will be as fully answered by Satan’s destruction, when the time cometh, as to suppose it hath come. And very certain it is, from the days of Christ’s being upon earth to this hour, there hath never been a period of shortness, much less of a thousand years, in which the devil’s influence on the minds of men, hath been restrained. And, moreover, as the imprisonment of the devil, according to the statement in this scripture prophecy, is to follow the burning alive of the beast and the false prophet, and not before these events, and as neither of these events have as yet taken place, it should seem, that there can be but little question, that the time of the devil’s overthrow by Christ is not yet arrived.

I shall take occasion in this place, to offer to the Reader, some few, and, I hope, not unprofitable observations, on this interesting subject of the war Satan hath waged with the Lord Jesus Christ and his people, and on scriptural authority. And I pray God the Holy Ghost, that, from his divine teachings, I may be kept from advancing any one single point, but what is in perfect conformity to the word of God; and the Reader may be preserved from deriving anything in those observations, but what shall be in strict consistently With God’s truth, that both the Writer and Reader of this Poor Man’s Commentary may be taught of God, and be mutually blessed by them to the Lord’s glory, and to our souls furtherance in grace, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

In the prosecution of this service, I shall not think it necessary to go over the whole ground of enquiry concerning Satan, and the empire, which from the fall of men he hath established, and in cruelty exercised over the souls and bodies of men, more or less, in every individual instance of the children of Adam. This would be too extensive a subject. But I shall take the matter up from that part, which, unhappily for mankind, is too well confirmed, and too strongly proved to our sorrow, to be called in question. I mean, that there is this evil, and formidable foe to our nature, which walketh about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour, 1Pe 5:8 .

Our adorable Lord hath so very fully drawn the outlines, both of the Person and kingdom of Satan, in his ministry when upon earth, and the Holy Ghost by his servants, both of the Old Testament and the New, have also so very largely set forth, the several horrible features belonging to both, that a reference to those scriptures, will supersede the necessity of advancing a single line, on these plain points. That there is this Prince of the power of the air, as he is called by the Holy Ghost, which worketh in the children of disobedience, and that the Church, as well as the whole Adam race, had their spirits under his government by nature, is a truth not to be controverted, Eph 2:2-3 . But the scripture is in a great measure if not altogether, silent, from whence this malignity of Satan to our nature arose, and wherefore this cursed and apostate spirit, hath taken up such a bitter and irreconcilable hatred to man.

Some great and distinguished men among the Lord’s people, gathering into one focus, the several lights which here and there the word of God hath thrown forth upon this subject, have conceived that when the whole rays are centered, they do shine with sufficient clearness, to show, that this malignity of hell first began, when at the fall of those apostate spirits, they took offence at the Son of God, betrothing the nature of man for a spouse for himself, at the call of God the Father, and not marrying the angelic nature. Their high intellectual powers could not stomach this choice. And therefore, rebellion brake out against the counsel and pleasure of the whole Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. And, hence the quarrel with the Son of God became personal. Satan attempted to set up a kingdom in opposition to Christ’s. Hence he began his malignant purposes upon the first man, made in Christ’s image, in the garden of Eden. And, hence, the war hath continued ever since, and will remain during the whole time-state of the church, and Satan’s enmity to all eternity.

But be this as it may, very sure we are, that such a deadly foe we have, whose captives, both by original and by actual transgression we are, and under whose dominion we must have lain forever; had not God our Savior conquered him for us, and conquered him in us. And it is only by his victory, that we are delivered from the powers of darkness, and translated into the kingdom of God’s dear Son. It is the personal labors of the Son, of God, which have accomplished all the purposes included in redemption; and though all the Persons of the Godhead have manifested the interest they take in this contest, yet the whole efficiency in the executive part of the work is in Christ, and by Christ. Christ, in his own Person, hath subdued Satan f or his people. And by his Holy Spirit, he subdues him in his people. A few leading points on this most interesting of all subjects, will make this matter abundantly clear, and from the warrant and authority of scripture.

I began from that part, where the word of God begins; namely, Satan’s ruining our nature in the instance of the first man in the garden of Eden. Here we date the origin of all the sins and sorrows of life. By the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. So saith the scripture. And so saith common sense. For as in our first father, we all had an inheritance of holiness, had he kept it in which we were all by right interested. So by his loss of it, and the sin involved in that loss, we are, by right of inheritance, included. Adam did then, as many a worthless father doth now, by sin, spent his estate, and left his children beggars. But, Reader! By the way, do not fail to observe, that as by original sin, in a birth-right of nature we had no hand in, we are all implicated in Adam’s sin and misery, so is it the mercy of the Church, that by the birth-right of grace to all God’s people, we are all interested, and take part in Christ’s righteousness and glory, in which we bore no hand. So sweetly saith the same scripture. For as by one man’s obedience many were made sinners; so, by the obedience of one, shall many be made righteous, Rom 5:12 to the end. One caution I beg the Reader to take with him, as he makes application of these scriptures, I mean, that he sees the proof of his relationship, in the right of which the whole depends. Prove yourself my brother, by the birth-right of grace; a child of God, before you lay claim to the privileges of a child. For, as upon the supposition I had not sprung from the first Adam, so called, and none of his blood had ran through my veins, I certainly should not have been implicated, either in his sin or his condemnation; so by a parity of reasoning, unless I can prove my relationship to the second Adam so called, I can lay no claim for an interest in his righteousness and justification. It is the relationship which makes out the right of both. Now both you and I too sadly prove we are sprung from the earthly Adam in nature. Can we as joyfully prove we are born of the heavenly Adam by grace? Sure we are, that we are by generation of the first man, which is of the earth, earthly. Are we as sure, that by regeneration we are of the second man, which is the Lord from heaven, 1Co 15:47 .

It is truly blessed to observe, how graciously the Son of God, when coming into our world to destroy the works of the devil, took up both our cause and his own, and as the apostate spirit, dared to attack the Lord of Life and Glory, Jesus not only came to redeem his people from his power, but to destroy him, and root out every evil from his kingdom. The Holy Ghost in one sweet verse of scripture, sums up in a comprehensive manner the whole subject. For as much as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them, who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to Bondage, Heb 2:14-15 .

But it would be the subject of a volume, yea, many volumes, to go over the track of ground which the scriptures furnish, in showing, Christ’s personal triumphs and victories over sin and Satan, death, hell, and the grave. What an huge account might be gathered, if only from that branch of the Lord’s first open skirmishes with Satan, in his miracles, when dispossessing him from the bodies of men? And then again from the souls of his people?

That Christ was the glorious Person interested in this great event, of the destruction of Satan and his kingdom, is evident, from, every consideration. For against Christ as God-Man, and his kingdom as his glory, the devil bent his whole malice. And hence, when Christ wrought his miracles, and especially in those miracles in which he cast out devil, Jesus made an appeal to those works, as so many demonstrations of his kingdom. If I, said Jesus, cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you, Mat 12:28 .

The first, and greatest act of Christ’s triumph over Satan, was on, the cross. Here, most eminently might it be said, that, through death, he destroyed him that had the power of death. For the devil is said to have had the power of death, not from his appointing the time of any man’s death, or having any power so to do, but because, by his introducing sin, he hath brought death into the world, which God, hath appointed, as the unavoidable consequence of sin, and therefore, the devil is very properly said, on this account, to have been a murderer from the beginning, Joh 8:44 . Hence, Christ by his dying for sin, hath removed the cause of death for his people, in the everlasting effects of it. And as by his death and resurrection, he is said to have overcome death and the grave, so in those glorious acts, he here gave the first death-blow to Satan and all his cursed empire; and from the cross and the tomb, the first views of the everlasting mansions of the redeemed were then discovered, 2Ti 1:10 .

The Holy Ghost, by his servants the Prophets and Apostles, hath caused these victories of Christ to be loudly and joyfully celebrated. The Lord Jesus himself, speaking in the language of prophecy thus delivered the blissful tidings ages before the event was to take place. I will ransom them from the power of the grave. I will redeem them from death. O death, I will be thy plagues. O grave, I will be thy destruction; repentance shall be hid from mine eyes, Hos 13:14 . And the same is spoken of Christ by the Apostle after the great triumph had been accomplished., And you being dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses, blotting out the hand-writing of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross and having spoiled principalities and powers (that is, those whom Paul elsewhere calls the rulers of the darkness of this world; see Eph 6:11-12 .) he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it, Col 2:13-15 . Hence here the Lord Jesus began the first open display of his personal victory over Satan. And hence God the Father’s gracious acknowledgment of the same, with the blessed consequence which were first delivered by prophecy, and confirmed by the event: Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he hath poured out his soul unto death, and he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors, Isa 53:12 . And in the prospect of this, just before the Lord Jesus entered the field of battle, he cried out; Now is the judgment of this world, now shall the prince of this world, be cast out, Joh 12:31 .

Secondly. After the Son of God had accomplished redemption – work, and was returned to glory, he sent down the Holy Ghost for the carrying on this victory in the hearts of his people. It was not sufficient, in God’s view, for Christ personally to conquer Satan, he shall be conquered by Christ mystically, yea, the poorest, the humblest, the feeblest, of the Lord’s members, in that day shall be as David by his Spirit dwelling in them, Zec 12:8 .

But while I begin this subject at this point, of Christ first personally triumphing over Satan on the cross, let not the Reader misapprehend, as though none of Christ’s chosen were enabled by virtue of their union with Christ, to triumph over Satan in the Lord’s strength before. This would be to mistake my meaning. Instances we have upon record, of old Testament saints, of Job and others who in the strength of Christ, were borne up against the devil and his temptations, before Christ at his incarnation, became manifested to destroy the works of the devil, But what I mean to say, and indeed what the word of God declares, is, that Christ in his own person conquered Satan, at his death, upon the cross, and Christ in his members conquers Satan, when at any time by the influences of his Holy Spirit, he bears them up against his temptations.

Now it is blessed to behold Christ’s triumphs over Satan, in every individual instance of his members, when, at regeneration, the Lord brings them out of his prison and sets their souls at liberty. Indeed, the Lord Jesus calls this work himself, the proof of his grace in the hearts of his people. For when Jesus sent Paul to preach the Gospel, his commission ran in these words, I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness, both of these things which thou host seen, and of those things in which I will appear unto thee, delivering thee from the people and from the gentiles, unto whom now I send thee to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and, from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me, Act 26:16-18

And although the enemy, doth rally again and again, and endeavors to draw back to his prison-house the souls a those that was once led captive by him at his will; yet, blessed be God, there is that, in every truly regenerated soul, which in Christ’s strength keeping them alive, (the Lord himself being their strength,) that enables the child of God to resist the devil stedfastly in the faith. And, if at any time the Lord, to show them their own nothingness, and his all sufficiency, permits the enemy, as in the case of Job, to come on more furiously, yet the end is, but for the greater glory of God, the greater good of his people, and the greater disgrace of Satan. Yea, even in those cases where, for the moment, the child a God falls, and is led away by the enemy, yet, even then like a captive, reluctantly obliged to march, be goeth on sullen and displeased. And when the grace of Christ recovers him, as Peter was recovered by one look of Jesus, oh! how godly sorrow springs up in the soul afresh, and he cries out, rejoice not against me, O mine enemy, when I fall I shall arise, when I sit in darkness the Lord shall be a light unto me, Mic 7:8-9 .

Thirdly. But the victory of Christ, in his own Person, over Satan, and the triumphs of Christ in his members, during the time-state of the Church, are here followed by the tremendous one, the opening of this Chapter presents to us. The Son of God having thrown down Pagan Rome, Papal Rome, and the false Prophet, here seizeth upon Satan, the ringleader of all, and being now about at this period of his Church, to set up a visible kingdom in this world, and before the final day of judgment, he shuts up the devil for a thousand years, that he shall not, during that time, afflict the people of God, either with persecutions or temptations. What events will mark this era of the Church, and to what extent the blessings of the Lord’s people will reach, we have no further account, than that it will be a time of great ingathering to the Lord.

There will be, according to the predictions of scripture concerning it, the more immediate presence of God our Savior in the midst of his people. Ezekiel speaking of it, said, that the name of the city from that day; shall be Jehovah Shammah, the Lord is there, Eze 48:35 . There will be a great pouring in of the Lord’s people, gathered out of all nations. In allusion to this day, it should seem, is that scripture. Thy people shall all be righteous, Isa 60:21 . Not more righteous in themselves, for Christ is the righteousness of his people, but all of them shall be righteous in being brought home by the Spirit to Christ. There will be true spiritual ordinances, and a true spiritual ministry. Pastors after God’s heart, and watchmen that shall see eye to eye. And the people shall have one heart and one way, and serve the Lord with one consent, Jer 3:15Jer 3:15 ; Isa 52:8 .

Fourthly, and finally. The Lord Jesus will bring Satan, with all his hellish crew at the day of judgment, and completely execute his wrath upon him and them, by fixing them in eternal punishment in hell. This is read to us, verse 10 (Rev 20:10 ). And the devil that deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever. And let all the people say, Amen and Amen.

Reader! pause one moment more over the wonderful subject, and with me, bless God for the graciousness of those discoveries, concerning both the ruin of Anti-Christ and the devil, and all his works. How little should we have known of these things, but for our Lord Jesus in these sweet records. How little do we even now meditate upon them, in a way equal to their vast importance. Think how the Church above, have been watching over these events, which have taken place below since their translation. Think how the spirits of just men made perfect in the Patriarchs, and Prophets, and Martyrs, who died in the faith of Christ before the coming of Christ, when they beheld Christ combating with the devil, in the wilderness, and in the garden, and when by his death he overcame death and the devil, and by his blood paid their ransom, which God had trusted him for, and for which they were received into glory.

That those departed have an intimate knowledge of these things is certain, for we find them (Rev 6:10 ) crying with a loud voice for vengeance on their murderers, when God explained to them the reason, wherefore they were to wait a little season for the accomplishment of their wishes. And, therefore, how must they have looked on and beheld with holy joy, the Lord Jesus casting down the beast and the false prophet alive in the lake of fire, and chaining Satan for a thousand years in the bottomless pit. And, oh! what joy, what shouts of praise will burst forth from the whole army of heaven, when all the accursed crew, shall be finally sent together into everlasting perdition, and their sentence and execution be in the full view of the congregated world of angels and of men.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

The Thousand Years’ Reign of Christ

Rev 20:4

I. First we shall show that the literal interpretation of the passage before us is altogether wrong and untenable. (1) The first proof of this is a very obvious one. We are dealing with a symbolic book. From the glorious description of the Saviour in the first chapter to the last picture of the Holy Jerusalem the book is one great series of panoramic displays of symbolic pictures. It is not intended to narrate literal events, whether belonging to the past, the present, or the future. (2) The next proof of my contention that you cannot possibly take this passage literally is that the literal interpretation of the passage is not only not supported by the other parts of Holy Scripture, but even flatly contradicted by them. (3) Then, again, the moral results expected by some from a visible appearing of Christ are altogether at variance with the statements of the other Scriptures, and with everything we know of the laws of the kingdom of God.

II. Now we proceed to seek the true interpretation of the passage In order to get at the true interpretation we have to observe two rules. One is: We must try to discover from the book itself how it uses its symbols. The other is: We must see to it that our own interpretation agrees with the clear utterances of the New Testament. (1) The one fact of interpretation we have to note is that numbers are always used in this book to represent principles or ideas, and not in their arithmetical character. To give one example: the number seven signifies completeness; the number three symbolises Divinity or Deity. Ten is the symbol for ‘kingship’. What then is the meaning of ‘a thousand’? A thousand is ten raised to the third power, and therefore signifies, the book being its own interpreter, the kingdom of God. It symbolises the Divine kingdom in its perfect and absolute completeness.

III. Let us in the last place sum up the lessons of this symbolic picture. (1) The first lesson is that the kingdom of God is absolutely guaranteed once and for ever in Jesus Christ. (2) The next lesson we are here taught is, that believers even now in their true and inner life are the real kings and judges of the world. ‘I saw thrones and they sat on them and judgment was given unto them.’ (3) The last lesson is that our present life in the kingdom is an earnest and guarantee of our complete future glory. ‘Blessed are they that have part in the first resurrection; over them the second death hath no power.’

John Thomas, Myrtle Street Pulpit, vol. II. p. 231.

References. XX. 4. Expositor (4th Series), vol. iii. pp. 251, 363; ibid. vol. x. p. 297.

Rev 20:9

There is nothing real or useful that is not a seat of war.

Emerson.

‘On the western slope of the Guadarrama mountains,’ writes Froude in his essay on Saint Teresa, ‘midway between Medina del Campo and the Escurial, stands the ancient town of Avila. From the windows of the railway carriage can be seen the massive walls and flanking towers, raised in the eleventh century in the first heat of the Spanish crusade. The fortifications themselves tell the story of their origin. The garrison of Avila were soldiers of Christ, and the cathedral was built into the bastions, in the front line of defence, as an emblem of the genius of the age.’

Reference. XX. 9. Expositor (4th Series), vol. x. p. 347.

Rev 20:11

At Hinely Hill, writes Wesley in his Journal for 1749, ‘a large congregation met in the evening. I expounded part of the twentieth chapter of the Revelation. But O what a time was this! It was as though we were already standing before the “great white throne”. God was no less present with us in prayer; when one just by me cried with a loud and bitter cry, I besought God to give us a token that all things work together for good. He did so; He wrote pardon upon her heart, and we all rejoiced unto Him with reverence.’

Dr. Bonar, in his Life of M’Cheyne, describes the latter’s final preaching at Newcastle in 1842. ‘He preached in the open air, in a space of ground between the Cloth Market and St. Nicholas Church. Above a thousand souls were present, and the service continued until ten, without one person moving from the ground. The moon shone brightly, and the sky was spangled with stars. His subject was, “The Great White Throne”. In concluding his address, he told them that “they would never meet again till they all met at the judgment-seat of Christ; but the glorious heavens over their heads, and the bright moon that shone upon them, and the old venerable church behind them, were his witnesses that he had set before them life and death”. Some will have cause to remember that night through eternity.’

References. XX. 11. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xii. No. 701, and vol. xlii. No. 2473. Expositor (6th Series), vol. v. p. 326. XX. 11, 12. Bishop Gore, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lviii. p. 353.

Rev 20:12

Stand before God past kneeling, past praying; not to be converted, but sentenced. Now, not then, is the day of salvation: not then except for the already saved.

C. G. Rossetti

‘When I see kings lying by those who deposed them,’ writes Addison in his reflections upon Westminster Abbey ( Spectator, No. XXXVI.), ‘when I consider rival wits placed side by side, or the holy men that divided the world with their contests and disputes, I reflect with sorrow and astonishment on the little competitions, factions, and debates of mankind. When I read the several dates of the tombs, of some that dy’d yesterday, and some six hundred years ago, I consider that great day when we shall all of us be contemporaries and make an appearance together.’

Rev 20:12

Who are we to measure the chances and opportunities, the means of doing, or even judging, right and wrong awarded to men; and to establish the rule for meting out these punishments and rewards? We are as insolent and unthinking in judging of men’s morals as of their intellects…. Our measure of rewards and punishments is most partial and incomplete, absurdly inadequate, utterly worldly, and we wish to continue it into the next world. Into that next and awful world we strive to pursue men, and to send after them our impotent party verdicts of condemnation or acquittal. We set up our paltry little rods to measure heaven immeasurable.

Thackeray, in Pendennis (LXI.).

Judgment By the Twofold Record

Rev 20:12

At the time he received and wrote his visions, the writer of the Apocalypse had steeped himself in the phraseology and similitudes of the Prophet Daniel. This metaphor of the open books which enters into the vision of judgment is to be found in the writings of the captive noble. The metaphor may have been suggested to Daniel by his acquaintance with the work and procedure of the official historiographers in Eastern courts. The metaphor is intended to teach that God has His own secret processes for verifying those facts of life and conduct which will be crucial to His final judgment upon each member of the human race.

I. Saints and sinners alike are forgetful of their own acts, and more or less blind to the character which is the sum of those acts, although for very different reasons. (1) Genuine goodness is at the very antipodes to all self-consciousness. A true saint has not only a very short memory for his own holy acts, he never thinks of them as his own acts at all. (2) The good deeds of a truly virtuous and holy mind will be so normal and spontaneous that they will pass unnoticed and unrecorded. True goodness forgets its own achievements. (3) And then how prone is the bad man to forget his evil deeds! His habits not infrequently blunt and narcotise memory, together with all the other intellectual powers. And the more evil there is in his life, the less likely he is to recall it. (4) And then the Book of Remembrance is necessary to check and counterpoise those distorting freaks of the imagination which are apt to arise whenever we seek to judge ourselves.

II. This reference to the books that were opened seems to carry with it an important doctrinal signification. (1) The Book of Remembrance is kept to vindicate the grace and wisdom and forgiving favour of the Lamb in inserting the names of His chosen ones in the Book of Life (2) The central place given in the judgment to the Book of Life teaches that one of the stern conditions of salvation is that the name shall be written there through the grace and atoning favour of the Lamb. A man cannot be saved by the things recorded in the Book of Remembrance alone. It is because our names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life that the holy and acceptable works we may come to do acquire their title to reward. (3) On the other hand, let us not overlook the solemn fact that our destiny will be just as profoundly affected by the plain chronicle of the daily life as by the fact that we were once pardoned through the grace of the Redeemer, and enrolled as subjects of His kingdom.

References. XX. 12. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vii. No. 391. C. Perren, Revival Sermons in Outline, p. 192. H. J. Bevis, Sermons, p. 290. W. H. Hutchings, Sermon Sketches, p. 31. J. Keble, Sermons for Advent to Christmas Eve, pp. 36, 47. Bishop Alexander, The Great Question, p. 95. XX. 12, 13. J. Keble, Sermons for Advent to Christmas Eve, p. 99. J. M. Neale, Sermons Preached in Sackville College Chapel, vol. iv. p. 234. XX. 14. N. D. Hillis, Christum World Pulpit, vol. lvii. p. 328. Expositor (4th Series), vol. ii p. 424. XXI. Expositor (5th Series), vol. ii. p. 94; ibid. vol. x. p. 455.

Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson

XVII

THE TRIUMPHANT HOLY WAR, INTRODUCING THE MILLENNIUM

Rev 19:11-20:10

This is the last synchronous view in this book. The first one was from chapter Rev 6:1-8:1 , the gospel as preached to the end of time; the second one was from Rev 8:2-11:19 , the gospel as prayed to the end of time; the third one was from Rev 12:1-19:10 , the conflict between the true church and the counterfeit church. Now, we have the fourth and last synchronous view; that is to say, the triumphant holy war that introduces the millennium. I am going to put this study in the form of a catechism.

1. Who is the hero of this war?

ANSWER. Our Lord himself, as the chief captain of our salvation. Your lesson says: “And I saw the heavens open, and behold! a white horse; and he that sat thereon called Faithful and True; and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.” The other references to him we will note later.

2. What are his titles?

ANSWER. With reference to his covenant-keeping with his people he is called Faithful and True. Whatever he says to his people is true, and to whatever promise he makes he is faithful: Faithful and True is his name, that refers to his people. With reference to the Father, his name is “Logos,” or the word of God (see Rev 19:13 of your lesson). With reference to the nations he is “King of kings and Lord of lords” (see Rev 19:16 of your lesson). With reference to the angels he is Michael, the Prince. (See Rev 12:7 .) Now these are his titles in four directions: with reference to his people; with reference to the Father; with reference to the nations; with reference to the angels.

3. In the exercise of what office is he here represented?

ANSWER. In his kingly office as a royal conqueror, judging and making war, on his head many crowns.

4. What is the distinction between his appearance on the white horse here, and his appearance on the white horse in chapter Rev 6:2 ; both times there comes forth a white horse and rider?

ANSWER. There, on the white horse (Rev 6 ), his weapon was a bow, shooting arrows of conviction into individual hearts, as the gospel was preached, and that record says that a crown was given him. But here, on his head are many crowns, and his weapon is a sword of judgment, smiting nations and governments, not individuals. There the bow was used for the salvation of the hearer of the gospel. Here the sword is to make all nations bow to his supremacy as Lord.

5. Who constitute his armies, and how are they described?

ANSWER. His armies are the saints, and they are described as clothed in fine linen, pure and white. I will ask you to recall that great war song, Psa 110 :

The Lord saith unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool; the law shall go forth from Zion, and in the day that thou leadest forth thine armies, thy young men shall be volunteers, going forth in the beauties of holiness and as multitudinous as the drops of the dew at the dawn of morning. Psa 110 .

How aptly that applies here. I do not mean to say that Christ, in his body, is present on earth in this war; he is conducting the campaign from heaven, and his armies are to wage war here on this earth. I call your attention again to another pertinent Psalm: “The kings of the earth set themselves and take counsel together against the Lord and his anointed! Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion” (Psa 2:2 ; Psa 2:6 ), and Just exactly what he does here is ascribed to him in Psalm

2. The fine linen, pure and white, as I have explained to you in the lecture on the promises, expresses the righteousnesses of the saints, which they receive in justification, regeneration, and sanctification.

Now, here comes an important question: His people had a very active part in the overthrow of the counterfeit church, but

6. What part has his people in this war of judgment that we are now reading about?

ANSWER. They have no executive part. We notice they carry no weapons; they have no part except declarative, and to be witnesses of his might.

7. How does this appear?

ANSWER. From the Old Testament analogues and prototypes; for example: Israel bore no active part in the plagues of judgment sent upon Egypt; no part in the overthrow of Pharaoh’s host at the Red Sea. They were witnesses and the Lord fought the battle. They had no part in the overthrow of Sennacherib as set forth in 2Ki 19:35 . Now, in order that you may understand this war, and what part God’s people have in it, I will read you a description by George Noel Gordon, Lord Byron: The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold, And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold; And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea, When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.

Like the leaves of the forest when the Summer is green, That host with their banners at sunset was seen: Like leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown, That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.

For the angel of death spread his wings on the blast, And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed; And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill, And their hearts but once heaved, and forever grew still.

And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide, But through it there roli’d not the breath of his pride: And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf, And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf.

And there lay the rider distorted and pale, With the dew on his brow and the rust on his mail; And the tents were all silent, the banners alone, The lances unlifted, the trumpets unblown.

And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal; And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword, Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord I

BYRON, “The Destruction of Sennacherib”

We are now studying one of the most important lessons in the book, a day in which God himself intervenes by extraordinary judgment. It appears also from the description of this very battle given in Isa 63 ; listen at this:

Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from. Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, marching in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness. Mighty to save. Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winevat? I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the peoples there was no man with me; yea, I trod them in mine anger, and trampled them in my wrath, and their lifeblood is sprinkled upon my garments, and I have stained all my raiment. For the days of vengeance was in my heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. And I looked, and there was none to help. And I wondered that there was none to uphold; therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me; and my wrath it upheld me. And I trod down the peoples in mine anger, and made them drunk in my wrath, and I poured out their lifeblood upon the earth. Isa 63:1-6 .

Now, this is an exact prophetic description of the hero in this war as set forth in this chapter; the references are to precisely the same event. We notice that he is just as much alone in the sending of the judgment in this terrible war as he was alone when he sent the angel of death to pass over the hosts of Sennacherib, the king of Assyria.

8. What, then, the supreme lesson of our passage?

ANSWER. God’s government of the nations and judgments on them to enforce their acknowledgment of his supremacy.

9. How did he once enforce this lesson on Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar?

ANSWER. 1 think I had better quote that for you; it is an old lesson that he is giving. I will quote from Dan 5 (Daniel is interpreting to Belshazzar the handwriting on the wall) :

O thou king, the most high God gave Nebuchadnezzar, thy father, the kingdom and greatness and glory and majesty; and because of the greatness that he gave him, all the peoples, nations and languages trembled and feared before him; whom he slew, and whom he would he kept alive; whom he would he raised up, and whom he would he put down. But when his heart was lifted up and his spirit was hardened so that he dealt proudly, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him; and he wag driven from the sons of men, and his heart was made like the beast, and his dwelling was with the wild asses; he was fed with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven; until he knew that the most high God ruleth in the kingdom of men, and that he setteth up over it whomsoever he will, and thou, Belshazzar, hast seen that lesson and hast not regarded it, and thou hast despised the God of heaven and of law. This handwriting comes out over thy wall: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. It means that thy kingdom is divided; it is measured to the Medes and Persians; thou art weighed in the balance and found wanting. Dan 5:18-27 .

Now, what he did in that case to Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar he is about to assert in this great battle of the nations.

10. Under whose leadership have human governments denied the supremacy of God?

ANSWER. Under the leadership of the devil, who usurped the kingdom of this world, and who shapes the policies of worldly governments and municipalities.

11. Since the preceding chapter disposes of the counterfeit church forever, why do the beast and the false prophet appear in this lesson? This is a very important question.

ANSWER. The beast is that upon which the counterfeit church rode, and it was the false prophet that made the people worship the image of the beast. Now, as the counterfeit church is disposed of before this event here, how is it that the beast and the false prophet appear here, and are taken and are cast into the lake of fire?

My answer is that, as was explained to you repeatedly, the beast is a politico-religious government, a union of church and state, and as such was not confined to Romanism; many Protestant kingdoms are just that way. Germany is that way now, Austria is that way now, England is that way now. There is a union of church and state, and that is the beast here. The woman in purple and scarlet is not riding him, but some other ecclesiasticism is riding him. Now, the one thing that goes down in this war, that never re-appears again in human history, is the union of church and state, and the consequent persecution of the saints. That kind of government God does not favor, unless it is his own theocracy, with him as the king, and the sole judge of what is religion.

It is impossible for me to make you understand, in so brief a space, what a tremendous impediment to the progress of the kingdom of Jesus Christ has been the union of church and state. We had it even here in this country in Colonial times. Within a few miles of where the battle of Lexington was fought, and near the time of that battle, the sheriff came and sold the choice acres out of the garden, or the fields of the Baptists in that community, put it up at auction at forced sale, in order to obtain funds to build a church for another denomination, that had few members in the community. And even John Adams said to Isaac Backus, the great Baptist historian, when he went to him and asked him to urge Massachusetts to allow freedom of conscience: “You might as well expect to see the sun rise in the west and set in the east, as to expect Massachusetts to tolerate anything but state religion.”

We had it in Virginia: Some of the most distinguished Baptists were imprisoned, their property confiscated, and Patrick Henry, when defending one of them, read the indictment: “Indicted for preaching the glorious gospel of the blessed God.” The way he said that shook the union of church and state in Virginia.

Now, in this war, the war that we are now studying, that beast of the union of church and state is taken and cast into hell forever never to reappear. In the same way the false prophet is taken, and false prophets are not limited to Papacy. The Archbishop of Canterbury may be a false prophet just as well as the Pope. When he was over here some months ago, visiting the United States, a number of distinguished ladies and gentlemen called upon him and asked him when he got back home to let the people alone to worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences; he gave slight heed to their petitions. The Greek church, in Russia and the Balkan States, is also a national religion. They fill the world with protest against the Turk for oppressing their religion, but show no toleration to people more evangelical than themselves. Now, that is why the beast and the false prophet appear here.

12. What is the occasion of this gathering of the nations to battle with the Lamb, and distinguish between this conflict and the war of Har-Magedon, which we have recently diseased?

ANSWER. In the war of Har-Magedon the Romanist church, as an institution, was destroyed, many kings and governments assisting in her destruction; but the prelude of this war is the return of the Jews into the Holy Land from every nation where they have been dispersed, and the nations are just as jealous of their restoration to and possession of that land, as they were jealous of the Romanist supremacy, and they gather their armies together for the destruction of the Jews and the retaking of the Holy Land.

That man is blind who cannot see the march of modern events: the railroad that Germany is building into the Holy Land; the eye of England and every other nation is fixed upon that most strategic position in all the East, to wit: The eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Those thundering Bulgarian guns that are today shaking the foundations of Constantinople are but a step toward Jerusalem, and the time will come when God’s many ancient prophecies will be fulfilled: He will gather his people out of all the nations whither they have been dispersed; he will assemble them in their own land; and when assembled there, with their unprecedented wealth, holding the strategical position of the East, the nations will remember their enmity to the Jews. This is the only country in the world that has not persecuted the Jew, this United States. And there will be a gathering of the powers to destroy the Jew and recapture that land. The Jews are unable to withstand the armies of the nations, then comes the rider on the white horse. Then comes Jehovah where these nations are assembled in the valley of Jehoshaphat, and by divine interposition two things happen: The Jews are converted in one day, the whole nation is born in a day, and the judgment of God, just as it fell upon the hosts of Sennacherib, falls upon the gathered armies of the nations, and destroys them.

13. Why, in a previous chapter, were certain Old Testament and New Testament prophecies grouped with the HarMagedon war, and here applied differently?

ANSWER. I thought some of you understood me by this time; frequently I put in a catch question. I designedly mixed up the grouping of those passages to provoke independent investigation. You have only to turn back to Rev 14 for that mixed grouping of Har-Magedon. I wanted you to see for yourselves the difference on the issues between the conflict of the counterfeit church with the true church at Har-Magedon, and this great battle for the salvation of the Jews.

14. What passages, then, in both Testaments, are now grouped as belonging to the holy war of this lesson?

ANSWER. There is no catch in the question this time. I will give you the passages that bear upon your lesson: Isa 63:1-6 : “Who is this that cometh out of Edom with dyed garments?” etc. I will quote the other passage from Isaiah, a continuation of the same subject all through the rest of the book of Isaiah. I quote from Isa 66 , following that war (I preached on this at the Convention in Houston): “Whoever heard of such a thing; who hath ever seen such a thing: shall a land be born in one day? shall a nation be brought forth at once? for as soon as Zion travailed she brought forth her children.” That connects with this battle, in which the hero has the dyed garments sprinkled with blood.

Then, in Eze 36:22-25 ; Eze 36:37 , I will quote, substantially, the pertinent part:

Not for your sakes will I do this, but for my own name sake will I do it, which name you have profaned among nations where you have been dispersed; I will gather you out of all the nations where you have profaned my name, into your own land, and then I will sprinkle the water of purification upon you, and you shall be clean, from all your idols and all your filthiness will I cleanse you; and I will take away your stony heart and give you a heart of flesh, I will put my spirit within you, and then you will keep my commandments and do them.

Eze 37 shows a great valley full of dry bones, representing all the dispersed fragments of Israel, and the question is propounded: “Can these dry bones live?” And the prophet says: “Thou knowest”; and God says: “Prophecy over these dry bones.” “What shall I prophesy?” “Prophesy this: Come, Oh Spirit, from the four ends of the earth, and breathe upon these slain,” and the Spirit came, and they lived and stood up, a mighty army. And this, says the prophet, is the restoration of the whole house of Israel.

All of Joe 3 refers to this war. He says:

I will gather all the nations together against you, when I have assembled you in my own land, I will gather them in the valley of Jehoshaphat; multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision. And I will say: Put in the sickle and reap the vintage; and fill up the winevat, and I will tread out the winevat until all my garments are stained with blood.

Then in Zec 12 it is said:

I will gather my people in the last day out of all the nations, and in that day I will pour out upon them the spirit of grace and supplication, and they shall look upon him whom they pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his firstborn son; it shall be a great mourning, every family apart. And in that day a fountain shall be opened for sin, and for uncleanness, in Jerusalem. And then in chapter 14 he goes on to describe the battle of the nations gathered against the Jews restored and converted, and all at once the lights go out. “Never was there such a day,” says the prophet. “The sun is darkened, the moon is darkened, but at even time there shall be light, and there shall be an earthquake such as the earth never felt before, and Mount Olivet shall split wide open, and half shall go to the west and half to the east,” and then he goes on to describe the millennium that follows.

And then (Rom 11 ) Paul says that the Jews did not stumble that they might fall forever. You Gentiles were saved by their fall. Their coming back will be as the life from the dead, and so all Israel shall be saved when they look to their Saviour.

15. Now comes this question: Why are the vintage of Rev 14:19 , and the war of Rev 19 classed with the prophecies promising the restoration of the Jews to their land, the war of the nations on them and the conversion of the Jews in one day?

ANSWER. Because the prophet Joel predicts in express words that very vintage that we described in Rev 14 of this book. And the prophet Isaiah draws the very picture of this hero conquering with his garments stained with blood, and commences it with the battle against the nations and tells of the salvation of the Jews; and because Peter says, speaking to the Jews: “Repent ye, so that your sins may be blotted out, and so that refreshings may come from his presence, and so that he may send Jesus whom the heavens must receive until the time of the restitution of all things.” That shows that Peter makes the repentance and conversion of the Jews a condition precedent to the final advent of our Lord and his restoration of all things. I told you that there never could be a millennium until the Romanist church had passed away; and I now tell you that there never can be a millennium until the Jews are converted, and it will be the quickest, widest entrance into the gate of salvation that this world has ever seen, a whole nation in a day. Three thousand on the day of Pentecost were converted; that was only the offering of the first sheaf, the firstfruits, and if three thousand be one sheaf, what will the harvest be? Therefore, I say that the Christian ought not to long for Pentecostal times; keep your back turned on Pentecost, and look to the harvest ten thousand times bigger than Pentecost that is ahead of you.

16. What is meant by the binding of Satan?

ANSWER. God’s power is exercised over this usurper that has held the earth six thousand years, or nearly all of that time, and he is determined that the earth shall have a sabbath, a thousand-year sabbath. As Satan has held it six thousand years, there shall be a thousand years of peace and salvation; the devil shall not cast a shadow over any man’s soul, nor press his cloven foot on any breaking heart, nor come with terrors to any dying man or woman, and shall not weave his spells of enchantment, and shall not beguile the nations, but he shall be chained and cast into the pit, and a rock placed over the mouth and sealed up for a thousand years. I will be glad when it comes. I want to tell you about the millennium; I want you to understand; you will be able to understand a great many strange scriptures when you comprehend the millennium.

What, then, is this war? It is a war of Jesus Christ against human governments, based on Satan’s power. Governments coming to thwart the promises of God by the destruction of the Jewish nation, in which the beast government goes down forever, and the false prophet forever, and Satan is bound for a thousand years, and all the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our Lord and his Christ. And it is not so very far off. The world was four thousand years old when Christ came, and it is nearly two thousand years since he came. The devil’s time is nearly out; events are moving rapidly, ocean and air are navigated, telegraph wires long rusted with commercial and political lies shall shine with the transmission of messages of mercy and salvation.

The questions on this chapter are embodied in the text, as it was prepared in the form of a catechism.

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

1 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.

Ver. 1. And I saw an angd ] Constantine the Great, the Church’s male child, Rev 12:5 .

Having the key ] Not that key, Rev 9:1 , but another.

A great chain ] The succession of Christian emperors.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

1 10 .] THE VICTORY OVER SATAN. The next enemy now remaining is the Arch-fiend himself, who had given his might and his throne and great power (ch. Rev 13:2 ) to the beast: whose instruments the other enemies were. The blow given to him by their overthrow is followed by his binding and incarceration for 1000 years ( Rev 20:1-3 ): during which period the Saints live and reign with Christ, and judge the world, and the first resurrection takes place ( Rev 20:4-6 ). But his malice and his power are not yet at an end. One final effort is permitted him at the end of that time ( Rev 20:7 ), and he once more succeeds in deceiving the nations ( Rev 20:8 ), who come up against the camp of the saints, and are destroyed by fire from heaven ( Rev 20:9 ). He is then cast into the lake of fire with the beast and false prophet, there to be tormented for ever ( Rev 20:10 ).

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

1 3 .] The binding of the dragon . And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven (not Christ himself, as Aug [124] , Andr [125] , Calov., Vitr., Hengstb., al.: nor the Holy Spirit, as Joachim, Cocceius (al.?): but a veritable angel, as always before in this book) having the key of the abyss (of hell, the abode of the devil and his angels: see ch. Rev 9:1 . For this abyss apparently is distinct from the lake of fire, a further and more dreadful place of punishment: see on Rev 20:10 .

[124] Augustine, Bp. of Hippo , 395 430

[125] Andreas, Bp. of Csarea in Cappadocia, Cent y . VI.

This key had been for the purposes of God’s judgments given to Satan (= Abaddon, Apollyon), and by him the locusts were let forth, ch. Rev 9:1-11 . Now it is entrusted to other hands, and for another purpose), and a great chain in (so in English: Gr., resting on, hanging upon , as a chain naturally would be: see reff.) his hand. And he laid hold of the dragon (already well known from ch. Rev 12:3 ff., Rev 12:9 ; Rev 13:2 ; Rev 13:4 ; Rev 16:13 ), the ancient serpent (for the expression and the construction, see reff.), who is the devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the abyss, and shut and sealed over him (shut the door or cover at the top, and sealed it down. Notice, that the same absolute use of in the active is found in ref. John, and apparently there only: see Palm and Rost, sub voce), that he might deceive the nations no more (there does not appear to be the least ground for Dsterd.’s idea, that the reading was adopted in order to suit the views of the later Fathers who regarded the millennium as present), until the thousand years shall be ( shall have been . futurus exactus) accomplished: after that he must (the of prophecy; must, according to the necessity of God’s purposes) be loosed for a little time (see below, Rev 20:7 ).

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Rev 19:11 to Rev 22:5 .] THE END: beginning with the triumphal coming forth of the Lord and His saints to victory ( Rev 19:11-16 ), then proceeding with the great defeat and destruction of the beast and false prophet and kings of the earth ( Rev 19:17-21 ), the binding of Satan and the millennial reign (ch. Rev 20:1-6 ), the unbinding of Satan and his destruction and that of the deceived nations ( Rev 20:7-10 ), the great general judgment ( Rev 20:11-15 ), and terminating with the vision of the new heavens and earth , and the glories of the new Jerusalem ( Rev 21:1 to Rev 22:5 ).

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

The dragon is flung by an angel, not by God or messiah, into the pit of the abyss which formed his original haunt ( cf. on Rev 9:1 ), and there locked up, like an Arabian jin, so as to leave the earth undisturbed for the millenium. The prophet thus welds together two traditions which were originally independent. The former echoes Egyptian ( E. B. D. 4, “thine enemy the serpent hath been given over to the fire, the serpent-fiend hath fallen down headlong; his arms have been bound in chains the children of impotent revolt shall never more rise up”) and especially Parsee eschatology (Hbschmann, 227 f.) which held that one sign of the latter days was the release of the dragon Dahka once bound fast at mount Demavend to corrupt the earth and eventually to be destroyed prior to the advent of the messiah and the resurrection of the dead. The Iranian view was that Fredun could not kill the serpent, whose slaughter was reserved for for Sme (Bund. xxix. 9). But John abstains from giving any reason for the devil’s reappearance. He simply accepts the tradition and falls back (Rev 20:3 ) piously upon the of a mysterious providence. Some enigmatic hints in a late post-exilic apocalypse (Isa 24:21-22 , the hosts on high and the kings on earth to be shut up in the prison of the pit but after many days to be visited, i.e. , released), upon which John has already drawn, had been developed by subsequent speculation ( cf. the fettering of Azazel, En. 10:4 f., 54:5 f.) into the do gma of a divine restraint placed for a time upon the evil spirit(s); see S. C. 91 f., Charles’ Eschatology , 200 f. . Strictly speaking, the previous tradition (Rev 19:18 ; Rev 19:21 ) left no inhabitants on earth at all. Such discrepancies were inevitable in the dovetailing of disparate conceptions, but the solution of the incongruity here probably lies in the interpretation of as outlying nations on the fringe of the empire (8) who had not shared in the campaign of Nero-antichrist and consequently had survived the doom of the latter and his allies ( cf. Rev 18:9 ).

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Revelation Chapter 20

A new and immensely important fact is described – the binding of Satan. He is no longer to be allowed to prowl about the world ensnaring and destroying. It is not his final judgment. “And I saw an angel coming down from the heaven, having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, the ancient serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years and cast him into the abyss, and shut and sealed [it] over him, that he should no more deceive the nations, till the thousand years should be completed: after these things he must be loosed a little time.” The unclean spirits when cast out by the Lord deprecated consignment to the abyss before the time. Immense will be the relief for man and the earth when they are thus shut up, as we see their prince here.

Then we come to a disclosure of wondrous blessing. “And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given to them: and [I saw] the souls of those beheaded on account of the witness of Jesus, and on account of the word of God: and those who did not homage to the beast, nor his image, and received not his mark upon their forehead, and upon their hand; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” Not many words are required to show that it is no mere figure of the new birth on the one hand, or of a flourishing state for the gospel or the church. It is the foreshadow of a real resurrection. Here the vision was of thrones with sitters already there, and of others now caused to join them, who had suffered unto death for the truth; of which the inspired explanation is, “This the first resurrection.” Let us look at the different groups that have part in the first resurrection.

First, the thrones were already filled. Instead of judgment being executed on them, it was “given to them.” They themselves were to judge. Scripture is clear that the saints are destined to be invested with judicial authority of a glorious nature. We shall reign with Christ. These are the same saints whom we have seen set forth by the twenty-four elders in heaven, next, by the bride and the guests at the marriage-supper of the Lamb, and finally by the armies that followed Him out of heaven. They are the heavenly saints generally up to the Lord’s coming to receive and set them in the Father’s house.

It is no longer a question either of celebrating the preliminary ways of God’s government, or of the war with the Beast and kings of the earth. Accordingly we have the power of evil restrained beyond all example; and ruling in righteousness as never seen before. There are thrones filled with persons come from heaven in the train of Christ, who now reign along with Him. The language of symbol is as definite as any other. There is no lack of precision, but the very reverse. Peculiarly compact energy attaches to symbolic language.

But there is, in the details which come next, much of interest and consequence to observe, in that an accession follows of the souls of those beheaded on account of the witness of Jesus, and on account of the word of God. These are the martyrs of Rev 6:9-11 , long before seen under the altar, and poured out like burnt-offerings to God. They had cried to the Sovereign ruler to avenge their blood on their foes, but were told they must wait a little for others, their fellow-bondmen and their brethren, to be killed as they were. Here accordingly we have them all. For there is added another company of faithful men who suffered when the Beast set up his worst and final pretensions. But these would not do homage to the Beast, or his image, nor would they receive the mark. These compose the third class here spoken of. We can understand the special mention of these two sections of the saints who suffered after the rapture to heaven. For they did not live for the power and glory of the kingdom. But if they died for Christ, God takes care they shall not lose, but share the first resurrection. They thereby become saints of the high places.

The first were the saints who came out of heaven after Christ, already in the changed or glorified condition. Consequently it was seen that they sat upon the thrones at once; while the two latter classes, described in the rest of the verse, were still in the separate state – “and the souls of those that were beheaded,” etc. “Souls” alone often means persons, as is familiarly known. But here it is “the souls of,” etc. It is a different phrase, and of different sense. It means the souls of beheaded persons. He first saw their disembodied condition; then another similar class; and next states that “they lived.” It is a raising up of both classes from the dead to join others already raised. For there were thrones, and people sat upon them, changed before this into the image of Christ’s glory. Then were seen others in the condition of souls who bore testimony after the first, those beheaded for the witness of Jesus and the word of God; lastly, those who refused the Beast in every form, – a testimony more negative than the former, but not less real. The evidence of the third class might have been given a little more distinctly than in our version; not “and which had not,” but rather, “and those who did not do homage to the beast, nor his image, and received not his mark upon their forehead, and upon their hand.” As these were in the separate state, it is added, “and they lived.” Thus only were they enabled to reign with Christ.

What can be simpler or more beautiful than the way in which this verse sums up for the sufferers what the Revelation had promised? After “the things which are” the visions of this book open, not with the rapture of saints to heaven, but with the sight of saints already in heaven. They are often before the seer in his visions, but seen always in a complete condition There is no addition to their number. Accordingly the translation of the church with the Old Testament saints must have already taken place before Rev 4 begins, all such being caught up at the self-same time to be with the Lord above. We have seen also that these follow the Lord out of heaven (Rev 19:14 ), and are next seen enthroned (Rev 20:4 ). When the Lord takes His own throne, they are given theirs by grace. Further, we find that the saints who had suffered for Christ, during the time that the glorified were in heaven, are now reunited to their bodies and “live,” the Lord waiting for the last martyr that He might not leave out one of those who had died for His name. All the sufferers, either in the early persecutions of Rev 6 , or in the later persecutions (Rev 13:15 ) up to Babylon’s extinction, were now raised from the dead. “They lived,” and were put thereby into a condition suitable for reigning with Christ, no less than the already changed Old Testament saints and the church itself. The dead saints were now all raised to reign over the earth.

Nor is this all here. Another sort of resurrection awaits all others, resurrection of judgment. Such is the meaning of the verse, “The rest of the dead lived not again till the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection,” which includes all that reign with Christ during the thousand years.

Let it be here carefully observed that the first resurrection does not mean all rising exactly at the same moment. Undoubtedly the change of all shore caught up takes place in the twinkling of an eye; but this in no way denies that other bodies are to be raised at a different time. For certain there are two acts of resurrection: one when the Old Testament saints and the church are caught up to heaven; the other when Satan is bound, after the Beast and False Prophet are thrown into the lake of fire, as well as Babylon judged. From the manner in which resurrection is referred to in scripture, does not God leave room for this? “I will raise him up at the last day.” “At the last day” does not mean an instant of time.

To see this plainly adds immense clearness in the understanding of the book. “The first resurrection” does not intimate that there is but one act of raising, but that all who share this resurrection, whenever raised, are raised before the millennium begins. When Christ reigns, all such have part in the first resurrection. First Christ Himself was raised at least 1,800 years before the church; then the church, with the Old Testament saints; then these Apocalyptic saints at the least some years after. This gives a full and just view of the various parties that have a share in this resurrection. “This is the first resurrection Blessed and holy [is] he that hath part in the first resurrection: over them the second death hath no power; but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.” It is clearly a personal reward to those who had suffered. How mischievous the thought that the church is ever to reign without Christ, though natural to man’s heart! The Corinthian saints dropped into it (1Co 4:8 ) and were rebuked for its unspirituality and worldliness. What more opposed to the portion of the apostles, as of Christ? We are called to suffer now, not to reign. “If we endure, we shall also reign together.” We rightly look to be glorified together with Him, but not apart from Him. To a loyal Christian heart, no reign of saints could satisfy or even be tolerated without Christ, the Firstborn among many brethren.

When the thousand years expire, Satan reappears on the scene to the sorrow and ruin of the Gentiles who were not born of God. But it is for the last time, not of this age only, but of the various dispensations of God. “And when the thousand years are completed, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations that [are] in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to the war.” This is clearly of moral importance. The glory of the kingdom does not preserve when men in their natural state are exposed to the adversary. Even in that day the distant nations, “the number of whom is as the sand of the sea,” fall a prey to Satan. If we had not this fact revealed, we should have lost a crowning proof of man’s evil and of Satan’s wiles and power.

“And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and encompassed the camp of the saints, and the beloved city.” The beloved city is Jerusalem; the camp of the saints is a larger circle and embraces all of Israel and those Gentiles who, being converted, refuse Satan’s deceit. They flocked to that centre. It is an evident contrast with the state supposed in the wheat-and-tare field of Christendom which is found at the end of this age. Wheat and tares grow together till the process of judgment separates. At the end of the millennium the righteous and the wicked form two distinct arrays, though even the surrounding camp of the God-fearing Gentiles forms now a wider circle, distinct from the beloved city Jerusalem on earth, where the Jews were. But the good and bad were not mixed up as now. The unrenewed of the nations compass them both with their countless hosts, as if to eat them up like grasshoppers. “And fire came down out of the heaven [from God], and devoured them. And the devil that deceiveth them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where [are] both the beast and the false prophet; and they shall be tormented day and night unto the ages of the ages.”

But another scene follows still more solemn, the most awe-inspiring of all for man to contemplate, yet full of blessing for such as are Christ’s to look onward to, putting down every enemy and trace of evil, and vindicating good where the creature altogether failed. Here is seen but one throne. It is the last judgment, the eternal judgment. Even when God was judging providentially, in the beginning of the Apocalyptic visions (Rev 4 ), associated thrones were seen. When Christ came personally to judge and govern the quick (Rev 20:4 ), thrones were seen; for the risen saints reign with Him But now there is but one throne: Christ judges the dead. Not a word implies His then coming, but the risen wicked stand before the throne.

“And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled and place was not found for them.” This is of immense moment doctrinally, because it decisively proves that it is altogether unfounded to assume, as is popularly done, that the Lord only returns at this juncture. By the coming of the Lord all must mean His coining to the habitable earth. But manifestly, if the Lord does not come before this, there is no world to come to; for the earth and heavens were fled. The common notion therefore, that the coming of the Lord is at this point, is an evident fallacy upon the face of the scripture which describes it, not to speak of others that confirm it elsewhere. It is not a syllogism that is wanted or that can satisfy here: we only require, only believe, the word of God. A single verse dispels clouds of arguments.

Afterwards no doubt a new heaven and a new earth are seen; but who contends that this is the sphere to which the Lord comes? He will come as He went (Act 1:11 ). “His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east.” To this earth He is coming, not to the new earth in the eternal state. To the same world in which He suffered He will, according to the scriptures, come back, and for seasons of refreshing from His presence. Then will be, not the day of the destruction of the universe, but times for restoring all things, whereof God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets since time began. These glorious times have never yet been accomplished, and therefore must be before eternity. They are reserved for Christ’s presence and reign, as He waits for the joint-heirs before He enters on it. But for the eternal judgment heaven and earth fled away; when it is over, we see the new and eternal universe. Hence He must have come back previously to both. With this agrees His coming out of heaven in judgment of the earth, described in Rev 19 . He came to the world, and avenged His people on the Beast and the False Prophet with the kings and their armies; after which the risen saints reign with Him over the earth a thousand years. This it is, not on but over the earth. He with the glorified saints will have their home on high; none the less shall they reign over this world for the allotted time. Compare Joh 17:22 , Joh 17:23 .

Then, as seen, comes the final test of the nations of the earth after that kingdom has run its course, when the devil, let loose for a little, once more deceives flesh and blood after the analogy of all other dispensations. Even the age of visible glory cannot change the heart of man; though in the absence of the enemy and the controlling presence of the great King, they rendered feigned obedience for a long while. The kingdom can govern and bless but not convert man. Even the proclamation of the grace of God is powerless save it be brought home by the quickening energy of His own Spirit. In short no testimony can avail, no work, power, or glory, without the word of God applied by the Spirit of God. But in this is shown – what it is of importance to see – the true nature of the kingdom or millennial reign. “That day” does not mean a time when everybody will be converted, but when the Lord Jesus will govern righteously, when overt evil will at once be judged, and good be sustained wondrously for a thousand years. If any wrong should be done, it does not slip through. As far as the display of government goes, it is according to God morally and for His glory, though secret elements of evil may be there, never allowed to appear, but kept under if not expelled. But that the heart of man even so is not renewed becomes manifest, when Satan at the close deceives all that are not converted; and these, as we are told, are countless “as the sand of the sea.”

Do not wonder at the vast numbers, or at their defection. The thousand years of peace and plenty will have given occasion for an ever-growing population, spite of a world thinned by divine judgments which open that era. It is to be supposed that it must far exceed anything yet seen on the face of the earth. At the beginning and all through the Apocalyptic transition there will have been carnage, and worse and worse, among both the western powers and those of the east. In fact all the nations will be desolated by judgments of one kind or another. For all that, the world abiding for a thousand years (with every outward blessing and the most admirable government administered by the blessed Lord Himself) will issue in the teeming and prosperous and long-living races of mankind. Since sin entered, the state of nature will be unexampled for the fruits of the earth and the enjoyment of all that God has made here below. Consequently an increase in population follows such as never has been approached since the world was made. Yet it afterwards appears that Satan will not fail to turn the masses of the nations into one vast rebellion against the objects of God’s special favour on the earth, “the saints” who form then a vast “camp” round “the beloved city” of Israel. There will not be as now tares and wheat growing together; the righteous at once flock around the holy metropolis of the earth at that unwonted sight; and fire out of the heaven settles the insurrection. But now comes the judgment of the wicked for eternity which is in question.

“And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before the throne, and books were opened, and another book was opened, which is of life. And the dead were judged out of the things written in the books according to their works.” Before “God” is a spurious reading.

After this is not the destruction of those rebels by divine judgment, but the dissolution of heaven and earth. Jesus sits upon the great white throne. It is the judgment of the dead as such, who now rise and give account of their deeds. All the dead are there who had not part in the first resurrection. The nature of the case exempts of course the saints of the millennium;* and this very simply, because they are never said to die. There is no scriptural reason to infer that any saints die during the thousand years, but rather the contrary. Scripture is positive in Isa 65 that death during the millennium only comes as a specific judgment because of open rebellion. When a person dies, it will be a positive curse from God; if he die even a hundred years old, it will be like a babe dying now. Man converted will then not merely reach the natural term of a thousand years (as did neither Adam nor Methuselah), but pass that bound. If alive before the thousand years, he lives after the thousand years; in fact, he shall never taste death. From general principles we may be assured that the saints of the millennial earth will be changed when the heaven and the earth disappear. Assuredly they will be preserved through that crisis in some way suitable to divine wisdom. God has not told us how, nor is it ours to pry. He has reserved the matter, though not without enough to guide our thoughts. It is one of those cases which every now and then appear where God checks and reproves our curiosity, as He alone knows how to do perfectly. “Flesh and blood,” we know, “cannot inherit the kingdom of God.” According to the general scope of scripture, then, we may be quite sure that these saints, kept during this universal dissolution of the atmospheric heaven and the earth, will be translated to “new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness,” in a condition new and meet for the eternal state into which they are ushered. Let others speculate, if they will; he who essays to conceive the detail is striving to draw a bow beyond the power of man.

* None, however, can be exempt from being manifested before the judgment-seat of Christ, or from giving an account of all done in the body. But no believer comes into judgment. (Joh 5:24 compared with Rom 14 : and 2Co 5 ) It is due to the Lord that all should be there manifested; it would be a great loss to the saints if it were not so. But to those who have not Christ, and are therefore found “naked,” how awful, utter, and unending is their judgment when it comes!

The dead were judged, but not out of the book of life which has nothing to do with judgment. “The dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works.” Why then is the book of life mentioned? Not because any of their names were written therein, but in proof that they were not. The book of life will confirm what is gathered from the books. If the books proclaim the evil works of the dead that stand before the throne, the book of life offers no defence on the score of God’s grace. Scripture records no name whatever as written there among those judged. There was the sad register of undeniable sins on the one side; there was no writing of the name on the other side. Thus, whether the books or the book be examined, all conspire to declare the justice, the solemn but most affecting righteousness, of God’s final irrevocable sentence. They were judged, each one, according to their works. “And if any one was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire.” Thus the only use that seems made of the book is negative and exclusive. Not that any of those judged (and the scene described is solely a resurrection of judgment) are said to be written there: we are shown rather that they were not found in that book.

Neither the sea nor the unseen world could longer hide their prisoners. “And the sea gave up the dead that [were] in it, and death and hades gave up the dead that [were] in them: and they were judged, each one, according to their works.”

Again, Death and Hades are said to come to their end, personified as enemies. “And death and hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.” Thus was concluded all dealing on the Lord’s part with both soul and body, and all that pertains to either. The race was now in the resurrection state either for good or for ill; and thus it must be for ever. Death and Hades, which had so long been executioners in a world where sin reigned, and still did their occasional office when righteousness reigned, themselves disappear where all traces of sin are consigned for ever. God is “all in all.”

Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Rev 20:1-3

1Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. 2And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; 3and he threw him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be released for a short time.

Rev 20:1 “Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss” This is similar to the angel who had the key to the abyss in Rev 9:1-2; Rev 9:11. It is interesting that Satan is bound by an unnamed angel.

“the key of the abyss” We have seen two “keys” in Revelation. Jesus has the keys to Death and Hades in Rev 1:18 and the unnamed angel has the key to the abyss in Rev 9:1. The term “key” is metaphorical for “authority over.”

The term “abyss” is the Greek word for “depth” with an alpha privative (the bottomless pit) and has been discussed in Rev 9:1. It seems to be the prison of demonic spirits. However, this cannot be an absolute interpretation because of Paul’s use of it in Rom 10:7. It may be synonymous with “Tartarus” as the place of confinement for all evil spirits (cf. Luk 8:31; Jud 1:6; 2Pe 2:4). In rabbinical Judaism of the 2nd and 3rd centuries it was understood to be the unrighteous part of Hades.

Rev 20:2 “the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan” These fourfold titles of the evil one, which were discussed in Rev 12:9, are emphasized to define precisely who is being bound and who will later be thrown into the lake of fire (cf. Rev 20:10). This links the Beginning (cf. Genesis 3) with the End (Revelation 20-22).

The term “dragon” may be

1. parallel to “serpent.” In the OT the Hebrew term tannin can refer to

a. land snake (cf. Exo 7:9-10; Exo 7:12; Deu 32:33; and possibly Psa 91:13)

b. sea snake (cf. Gen 1:21; Psa 148:7)

2. parallel to the mythical sea monster, Leviathan (cf. Job 7:12; Psa 74:13-14; Isa 27:1), which is used to describe one of God’s creatures (cf. Job 41; Psa 104:24-26), or as a symbol of evil (like Rahab, cf. Isa 51:9)

3. used symbolically of the leaders of Israel’s enemies

a. Egypt (cf. Psa 87:4; Rahab; Eze 29:3)

b. Babylon (cf. Jer 51:34)

4. used in Mesopotamian mythology as the chaos monster (cf. Introduction to Revelation 12 #B and specifically in Rev 12:3)

The King James Version translates both tannin and tannim (howlers or jackals, cf Job 30:29; Psa 44:19; Isa 13:22; Isa 34:13; Isa 35:7; Isa 43:20; Jer 9:11; Jer 10:22; Jer 49:33; Jer 51:37; Eze 29:3 and Mic 1:8) as “dragons,” but they are not related terms. Jackals is the plural of tan.

“bound him for a thousand years” Humans have always felt that the corporate condemnation resulting from Adam and Eve’s choices is unfair. It may be that this removal of evil and temptation provides a setting theologically similar to the Garden of Eden. Not only will mankind be spared temptation from Satan, they will enjoy the presence of the Glorified Messiah for an extended period. The tragedy is that mankind will again rebel against God’s reign in Christ (cf. Rev 20:7-9)!

The OT concept of the two Jewish ages was a way of depicting the conflict between good and evil (limited dualism). The Jews pictured this cosmic conflict as being resolved in an end-time battle (cf. Psalms 2). John uses this imagery to help the persecuted Christians of his day and every day. In a book of such obvious symbolism, and a revelation so isolated and unrepeated as the 1000 year reign, why would anyone want to interpret this literally? The answer lies in the interpreter’s presuppositions, not in exegesis. It is not a matter of believing the Bible; it is a matter of proper, consistent interpretation of apocalyptic literature. Believers’ desire for more information about the end-time has driven them (1) to turn this book into a chronological presentation of the Second Coming and (2) to force the details to fit into their own history, culture, and interpretative, theological grid. If this is taken literally, only the Christians who lived and died during this period will reign with Christ (cf. Rev 20:4-5)!

Rev 20:3 “and he threw him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him” There are five verbs related to the binding of Satan by an unnamed angel: (1) “he laid hold of”; (2) “bound him”; (3) “cast him”; (4) “shut it”; and (5) “sealed it.” All of these are aorist active indicatives. This implies a complete removal of Satan’s influence. This may be an allusion to Isa 24:22.

“so that he would not deceive the nations any longer” Deceit has always been the purpose of the evil one and his agents (cf. Rev 12:9; Rev 13:11-14; Rev 16:14; Rev 19:19; Rev 20:8). Because he knew that his time was short (cf. Rev 12:12), he was trying to lead as many as possible of God’s beloved creation, men and women, away from Him into rebellion and unbelief. He also desires worship, as can be seen in the temptation of Jesus in Mat 4:9; Mat 13:4.

A very pertinent question is, to whom does “the nations” refer? The unbelieving nations were previously destroyed in Rev 17:2; Rev 18:3; Rev 19:18-21. Some have said that it refers to the same nations, but it is the remnant of them, not their defeated army. Others have said that it is different nations who were not involved in the anti-God, anti-Christ conspiracy. The symbolism of “the nations” is very difficult (see notes at Rev 2:26; Rev 10:11) because they are seen again in Rev 22:2, even after the destruction of Satan and all unbelievers.

It is possible that Rev 19:11-21 (i.e., Revelation 17-19) is recapitulated in Rev 20:1-10 (i.e., Revelation 20-22). This may solve the question of the presence of “the nations” after the complete and final judgment of chapter 19. “The nations” usually refers to wicked, godless peoples (see note at Rev 2:26; Rev 10:11 and article by Dave Mathewson, “A Re-examination of the Millennium in Rev 20:1-6 : Consummation and Recapitulation,” JETS, vol. 44 #2, June 2001, pp. 237-251). The finding of Satan in Rev 20:1-10 would be analogous to Luk 10:17-20 (Satan cast from heaven); Mat 12:26-29 (Satan’s kingdom defeated by Jesus’ exorcisms); Col 2:10; Col 2:15 (disarmed the rulers and authorities). Rev 20:1-10 would refer to Christ’s victory at His first coming and the results abide until just before His second coming (amillennialism).

If this recapitulation is true then it shows how John is influenced by the single end-time battle motif of Ezekiel 38-39 (and also Psalms 2). John has taken this OT confrontation with godless nations in Asia Minor and universalized it into the eschatological battle between God’s people and the people influenced by Satan and unbelief.

“until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be released for a short time” There has been much discussion about why Satan “must” (dei) be loosed a little while. Some see it as God showing the justice of His condemnation of rebellious humans; others see it as possibly one more chance of redemption as in Rev 9:20-21; Rev 14:6-7; Rev 16:9; Rev 16:11.

It is also possible to see Satan’s binding as symbolic of evil’s final defeat using Jewish apocalyptic images from I Enoch 10:4-6,11-13, where Azazel (the desert demon of Lev 16:8; Lev 16:10; Lev 16:26) is imprisoned by an angel so that he cannot lead people astray. The imprisonment was a way of holding evil angels until judgment day in Isa 24:21-22; 2Pe 2:4; and Jud 1:6.

It is also possible that his release triggers the end-time, once-and-for-all confrontation between God, Messiah, Spirit, and their followers vs. Satan, the sea beast, land beast, and their followers. Creation will be purged of evil. History has become the battleground, history will be the scene of the final confrontation. The OT motif is from Psalms 2 and Ezekiel 38-39. This same end-time judgment is seen in Rev 19:19-21. If this is true then Revelation 17-19, 20 parallel and cover the same period from Christ’s first coming to His second coming.

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

saw. App-133.

come = coming.

from. App-104.

heaven. See Rev 3:12.

in = upon. Greek. epi.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

1-10.] THE VICTORY OVER SATAN. The next enemy now remaining is the Arch-fiend himself, who had given his might and his throne and great power (ch. Rev 13:2) to the beast: whose instruments the other enemies were. The blow given to him by their overthrow is followed by his binding and incarceration for 1000 years (Rev 20:1-3): during which period the Saints live and reign with Christ, and judge the world, and the first resurrection takes place (Rev 20:4-6). But his malice and his power are not yet at an end. One final effort is permitted him at the end of that time (Rev 20:7), and he once more succeeds in deceiving the nations (Rev 20:8), who come up against the camp of the saints, and are destroyed by fire from heaven (Rev 20:9). He is then cast into the lake of fire with the beast and false prophet, there to be tormented for ever (Rev 20:10).

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Chapter 20

I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand ( Rev 20:1 ).

Now, earlier under the fifth trumpet there was a fallen angel that had the key to the bottomless pit, the abusso, and he opened it and released upon the earth a horde of demonic beings. Now, the angel comes with the key and the purpose is not in releasing those in the abusso, but in incarcerating now in the abusso. So, he had a key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.

And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and he bound him for a thousand years ( Rev 20:2 ),

And so Satan is not put into Gehenna, but he is put into the abusso for a thousand years. Later he will be put into Gehenna, but at this point chained and put into the abusso.

The various names for Satan; dragon, serpent, that is the one who came to Eve in the garden in the form of a serpent, and Devil. The word Devil means slanderer or accuser, and “Satan” which word means the adversary.

And cast him into the abusso, and he is shut up, and they set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed for a little season ( Rev 20:3 ).

Satan at the present time is in control of the world system. Paul the apostle said, “At one time you all walked according to the course of this world according to the prince of the power of the air that even now is working in the children of disobedience among whom you all once had your manner of living” ( Eph 2:2 ). But he called Satan the prince of this world. Jesus refers to him as such. Satan is in control. It belongs to him.

When Jesus came, He came to redeem the world back to God. Satan offered Him a deal. “Bow down and worship me and I will give you the kingdoms of the world and the glory.” And Jesus said, “It is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him only shall you serve.” But Satan was offering a compromise. He was offering an escape from the cross. But Jesus paid the price and redeemed the world that it might be God’s once again. And when He comes, he is coming to claim that which He redeemed, to claim His purchased possession. And so the world is still in Satan’s hands. Technically, it now belongs to Jesus. He paid the price to redeem it, but He has not yet taken possession of that which He has purchased; will do that in the near future.

To me it is interesting that it has been under Satan’s power and control for about six thousand years. If you go back to the time that Adam disobeyed God and turned the world over to Satan and was ejected from the garden, that was just about six thousand years ago; short just a few years. And I believe the Lord is going to allow Satan to have it for six thousand years. When a man was sold into slavery he remained a slave for six years and our period of bondage and slavery to sin is about over. Satan has just about had his time, his realm. The day of redemption is at hand.

And all creation groans and travails as they wait together for the manifestations of the sons of God to wit the redemption of our bodies. So, now the time has come and Satan is cast into the abusso during the thousand years that Jesus reigns upon the earth with His church. Satan will be bound. He will not be deceiving the nations, but Jesus will be reigning. His kingdom will be here on earth and His will being done here on earth even as it is in heaven.

I saw the thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them ( Rev 20:4 ):

So, these first thrones that he sees are the thrones upon which the church does sit. Jesus said to the church of Laodicea, “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me on my throne even as I have sat down with my Father on his throne”( Rev 3:21 ). And so the promise of sitting on their thrones and judgment given unto them. “Know ye not,” Paul said, “that you are going to judge the angels”( 1Co 6:3 ).

I saw then secondly the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, 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 ( Rev 20:4 ).

So, those martyred saints during the Great Tribulation period who had faced the antichrist and had been killed by the antichrist for their refusal to receive the mark, they too will be numbered with the class who reign with Christ in his reign upon the earth for a thousand years.

But the rest of the dead [the unrighteous dead] do not live again until the thousand years are accomplished. For this is the first resurrection ( Rev 20:5 ).

Now the first resurrection began with Jesus Christ. He is the first fruits of those who rise from the dead. When Jesus rose from the dead, he lead the captives from their captivity, those Old Testament saints that were waiting in faith with Abraham for the promises of God to be fulfilled. Jesus went into the prison, preached to those souls in prison and when He came out he lead them from their captivity. “He who has ascended,” Paul said, “is the one who first of all descended into the lower parts of the earth and when he ascended he lead the captives from their captivity”( Eph 4:8-9 ).

And he opened the prison to those that were bound. And He set the captive free according to the prophecy in Isaiah sixty-one. That is the beginning of the first resurrection. The first resurrection will be complete when the final person is martyred, who is to be martyred by the antichrist during the Great Tribulation period. That will make up the group in the first resurrection. Going back to the time of Adam and Abel, those righteous of the Old Testament who waited for the promise of God, on through to the church and beyond the church, to those martyred saints during the Great Tribulation all making up the first resurrection.

Blessed and holy is he that has part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years ( Rev 20:6 ).

So, this millennial reign of Christ in which we will reign with him upon the earth for a thousand years. Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints to execute judgment upon the earth was a prophecy by Enoch quoted in the book of Jude. Paul said, “When Christ who is our life shall appear then shall we also appear with Him in glory” ( Col 3:4 ). And so coming with His saints to establish His kingdom upon the earth.

Now, this is different from the rapture of the church. Then He is coming for His saints. When He comes again in power and glory, He will be coming with His saints. I expect to have a part in both.

Now when the thousand years are over, Satan will be loosed out of his prison, He shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth [or the north, east, south and west], Gog and Magog ( Rev 20:7-8 ),

These names are synonymous with rebellion against God. We find those names used in Ezekiel to identify Russia as the leader of the rebellion against God’s people in the last days. But this is not to be confused with Ezekiel thirty-eight and thirty-nine.

And he gathers them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea ( Rev 20:8 ).

It is amazing that after one thousand years of Christ reigning upon the earth that people living in the reign of Christ will be deceived and turn with Satan to try to destroy Jesus Christ again. Multitudes of them will try, as many as the sand of the sea. That is a numberless multitude.

You say how could that be? I don’t know. How could it be that man rebels today? I don’t see how a logical thinking reasonable man could really set himself against God and rebel against God. I don’t see how a person could do it, except that Satan has blinded their eyes that they cannot see the truth. They are really blind spiritually. “The natural man does not understand the things of the spirit neither can he know them” ( 1Co 2:14 ). And that is the only explanation I can give.

Having eyes to see, they will not see. There is none so blind as those who will not see. And there are people who just say, “I don’t want to see it or don’t want to hear it. Don’t confuse me with the facts. I have made up my mind. Just leave me alone.” And they just set their mind against it. And why and for what purpose? I don’t know. For God only has your good at His heart. God is only interested in what is best for you. Why should you fight that? You are fighting against your own good and your own welfare, your own destiny. And why a person would want to do that I cannot understand, but such is and shall be the case.

Now, these souls that Satan deceives are those who are born during the thousand-year reign of Christ. We will be in our glorified bodies. Now what all the capacities of these bodies will be, I do not know. “We are now the sons of God. It doth not yet appear what we are going to be, but we know when He appears we are going to be like Him. We will see Him as He is” ( 1Jn 3:2 ). I am certain we are going to have a lot of interesting marvelous capacities in our new glorified bodies.

For one I am not going to have to get on a stupid 747 to get all the way over to Israel and take seventeen hours in the air and arrive there weary and tired from jetlag. I really believe that in my new body I will be able to get there, zip, in a moment of time. “Hey, let’s cruise over to Jerusalem and see what is going on.” Poof. We’re there. I think there are going to be a lot of capacities in our new bodies that the Lord has for us. They are sort of a universal body. We can say, “Hey, let’s head out to the moon and see what is happening there.” They are adaptable for anywhere. This body is only adaptable for the planet earth. It is out of the earth and for the earth. I am going to have a new body, which is of the heavens and universal. We are born in the image of the earth, earthy, so shall we bear the image of the heavens.

So, I am sort of excited about the new body. I know it is not going to have gimpy knees and crumbling teeth and fading eyesight. In fact, we’ll probably have telescopic type of sight right through the walls of the houses. I think that we will have precognition. I think that we will know in advance when someone is planning to do something wrong. So, zip, we are right there and we can say, “No, no, no.” And if they persist then, “bong”, ruling with a rod of iron. It is going to be interesting to say the least.

So, Satan deceived them that have been born during the thousand-year reign of Christ, who have never really had an opportunity to express their rebellion against God. They have been forced to serve Jesus Christ. They have been forced to live by the laws of God. And man will reveal once and forever the righteousness of God’s judgment in ridding the world and the universe of such rebels. The fact that after living for a thousand years in the ideal environment of God’s kingdom and at that they rebel.

Now, notice that Satan is really a tool of God and under God’s control. When God wants, He can chain him and will, and then release him again for a short time and then incarcerate him forever. But he is just serving a purpose of God. But it sort of points up the fallacy that some people so foolishly declare, and that is, hey, God says that all are sinners. So by my sin, I am only proving that God tells the truth. So how can God judge me for sinning when I am only proving that He is a true God? Such type of reasoning deserves its own judgment. “Let us do evil that good might come, because where sin abounds grace overflows” ( Rom 3:8 ). Well, then lets go out and sin, so God can show His grace.

So the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire [Gehenna], where the beast and the false prophet are ( Rev 20:10 ),

Not where they were, not where they were destroyed, not where they were consumed, not where they were annihilated; but where they are.

and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever ( Rev 20:10 ).

“Aionios perusi aionos:” from the ages to the ages. It is the Greek word for eternity. Is Gehenna then eternal torment and punishment? Is that fair for God? I am not going to touch that issue. That is what it says here. Now, you may do what you want with it to explain it or explain it away or whatever, but I am not going to touch it.

For over in chapter twenty-two I read, “If any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away His part out of the book of life and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in the book. If any man adds to the words of this prophecy, God shall add to him the plagues that are written in this book” ( Rev 22:19 ). So, I am not going to touch it. You do what you want with it, but I am going to accept it as it is. You say, “Well, I don’t understand it?” I don’t understand it either, but I’m just going to leave it alone.

And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them ( Rev 20:11 ).

God’s Great White Throne Judgment of which you have heard so much.

And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things that were written in the books, according to their works ( Rev 20:12 ).

Now, there are several books. There is the book of life. There are mentions of this book of life in the Old Testament and also in the New.

the sea gave up the dead which were in it ( Rev 20:13 );

Now, who are the dead which are in the sea? I don’t know. Maybe the sea covers a previous civilization that also rebelled against God. There are indications that Genesis one is not original creation, except in verse one. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”, “barra”, out of nothing and brought something into existence. “And the earth was without form and void.” God doesn’t create things without form and void as a general rule. On each of the days of creation, God saw that He created and said, “It’s good.”

We are told in Isaiah forty-eight that God did not create the earth wasted and desolate. He created it to be inhabited. The Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters. The word “moved” in Hebrew is brooded as though in anger. It would seem that perhaps there was another civilization that existed on the planet earth prior to man in our present form that was destroyed in the wrath and the anger of God covered with water. The earth was then covered with water, the great ice age, and the pervious civilizations buried.

and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them ( Rev 20:13 ):

It could be that there is something to the legends of the lost continents of Atlantis and all. Who knows? I don’t. But here it is interesting, it could just mean those that were buried at sea or those whose ashes were spread out over the sea, because no matter where your body is placed when you die, if you are unrighteous your soul is in hell. So, hell will disgorge its inhabitants separate from those in the sea. The sea gives up those, which are within it.

“And death and hell deliver up the dead which are in them.” So, hell is not eternal. It is not the place of eternal punishment. It will come to an end as it disgorges its inhabitants that they might stand before the Great White Throne Judgment of God. Then when the sentence is pronounced upon them at that point, they are sent into Gehenna which is the second death and that is permanent. So, “The sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them.”

and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire ( Rev 20:13-15 ).

Men judged according to their works, their evil works. They said to Jesus one day, “what must we do to do the works of God?” He said, “This is the work of God, believe on Him who he has sent. Men who do not do the work of God will be judged then according to their own works”( Joh 6:28-29 ). “

Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary

Rev 20:1. , an angel) Cluver interprets it of a created angel, T. iii. Dil. p. 321. Primasius, in the summary of his fifth book, and Ticonius, in his 17th homily, Andreas of Csareia, in his 20th discourse, connect the 19th and 20th chapters most intimately. John Frid. Schmid acknowledges that the destruction of antichrist (in what sense he understands antichrist does not belong to the present subject) is prior to the millennium, and that he who denies this incurs the punishment predicted, ch. Rev 22:18-19. See Chronol. Anleitung, Part II. p. 316.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Rev 20:1-3

SECTION FIVE

THE “MILLENNIUM” AND THE JUDGMENT

Rev 20:1-15

PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS

Rev 20:1-10 has been made the battle ground for more conflicting theories, perhaps, than any other passage of scripture. This fact suggests caution and modesty in approaching it as commentator. Where so many have fallen must be dangerous ground. A few introductory considerations may aid in reaching satisfactory conclusions.

1. The word “millennium” is not in the. Bible, but by common use has been given a permanent place in religious literature. It is a Latin word, meaning “a thousand years,” and is generally substituted for that expression which is used six times in this passage. This is the only place in the Bible where this period is mentioned. If a distinct age in which Christ will reign personally on earth, it is remarkable that neither he nor any of the apostles in their plain teaching said anything about it. Why should so important a matter be mentioned only in a book of symbols and in a highly figurative passage?

2. The popular notion that the millennium is a period of absolute and universal peace, righteousness, and felicity is pure assertion; the word has no such meaning. The assumption is based upon the statement that Satan is to be “bound” during that period, which is supposed to mean literal binding and a complete destruction of his influence. Neither of these conclusions is true. If any wicked people are left on earth in the millennial age, Satan’s personal binding would be of no special benefit; for his servants here could still torment and deceive the righteous. The wicked are his “ministers” now (2Co 11:15), and will be while here. At Christ’s coming all the wicked are to be destroyed (Rev 19:19-21) and the righteous living and dead are to receive immortal bodies (1Co 15:51-52; 1Th 4:16-17.) If he comes to establish the millennium, then there can be no literal kingdom, for there will be none in the flesh either to rule or be ruled. Hence, the literal throne of David idea is false; the passage must be explained figuratively.

3. Many, including some pioneer preachers of the church of Christ, seemed to think the millennium would be introduced and perpetuated by the gospel prevailing over evil; that it would continue to win its way to men’s hearts till all evil would be rooted out by the inherent power of the truth. The rapidity with which the restoration work succeeded probably led to this idea but it evidently was a delusion. The notion overlooked the setting of this millennial passage, as well as man’s ability to reject any and all kinds of moral influences. The history of mankind for nearly sixty centuries is unmistakably against such a view.

4. Whatever the millennium may be, it precedes the final judgment. This is conceded by all. If the judgment occurs at Christ’s coming (a fact taught by the Scriptures), the doctrine that he comes to inaugurate the millennium is of necessity false. Peter makes the “coming of the day of God” the time when the heavens will be dissolved by fire and the elements melt with fervent heat. (2Pe 3:12.) Paul says Christ will be revealed from heaven “in flaming fire” to render vengeance upon the disobedient and be “glorified in his saints.” (2Th 1:8-9.) The rewarding of both bad and good will be at the judgment. (2Co 5:10.) Jesus plainly teaches that both classes will be raised at the same time. (Joh 5:28-29.) These passages show clearly that the coming of Christ, the resurrection of both righteous and wicked, and the judgment will all occur after the millennium, which renders a thousand years reign of Christ on earth an impossibility.

Jesus divides “all that are in their tombs” into two classes those raised to life–eternal salvation–and those raised to judgment–condemnation. The following conclusions are evident: If Jesus comes before the millennium, none can be raised bodily after it; for all are to be raised to be rewarded when he comes. Hence, the theory that only the wicked dead will then be raised is not true. If he comes after the millennium, none can be raised bodily before it, and the view that only the righteous dead will then be raised is also untrue. In either case the premillennial view of this passage is false. This fact will be more fully developed as we examine the language of the text.

6. To know the true setting of this passage is necessary to its correct understanding. The symbols in Rev 20:1-9 do not reveal events that are to follow chronologically after those of Rev 19:19-21. These verses describe the casting of the beast and false prophet into the “lake of fire”; Rev 20:10 tells of Satan being cast into the same place–that is, it completes the story partly told in Rev 19:19-21 and must refer to the same time. The millennial passage is a recapitulation of things described in preceding chapters with different symbols. Reviewing the same periods with changed scenes is common to this book. The seven seals that closed with the end of the world stop with Rev 11:18. The vision of the pure woman (true church) in her struggles against the dragon, beast, and false prophet, under the emblems of pouring out bowls of wrath, covers practically the same time, and the same final end is shown in Rev 16:17-21. Next the destruction of the false church, represented as a drunken harlot and a great city, is symbolically pictured in chapters 17 and 18, followed with a song of triumph by the redeemed. (Rev 19:1-10.) In Rev 19:11-18 is told the means by which this overthrow of evil is to be accomplished. Finally Rev 19:19-21 and Rev 20:10 describe this overthrow and bring us for the third time to the end of the world, for the “lake of fire” in Rev 20:14 is defined as the “second death.”

The evident purpose of Rev 20:1-10 is to give a brief review of Satan’s overthrow from the time his power was restrained until banished in the lake of fire forever. This recapitulation is appropriate here because it was Satan who did and will furnish the beast and false prophets with the power by which they operate against the truth. Christ’s personal coming ends the career of these three enemies; this event is after, not before, the “millennium.”

1. THE BINDING OF SATAN

Rev 20:1-3

1 And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven,–Perhaps it is well to observe again that we are here dealing with a symbolic vision that appeared to John. As noted several times before, the vision and the thing it represents must be kept distinct. As in other visions an angel is the medium of revealing the scenes, which guarantees that true facts are represented.

having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand.–“Key” represents the angel’s authority to open and close doors, but here must mean his right to force Satan to remain in his own place and be restrained from the unlimited use of his power which he had been exercising during the long period of papal usurpation. Being bound with a “great chain” signifies this restraint. No reasonable person will contend that the words “key,” “abyss,” and “chain” are to be understood literally. All that is necessarily implied is that the followers of Christ would have such protection against Satan’s power that they would be free to obey Christ, if they desired. Anything more than this would ignore man’s responsibility for his conduct, and make God a respecter of persons. No doctrine that conflicts with these two principles can be true as long as man dwells in the flesh.

2 And he laid hold on the dragon, the old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, –In the vision John saw the binding actually take place, but the thing it represents was far in the future when he wrote. See notes on Rev 4:1-2. He figuratively describes the dragon as the “old serpent” which is doubtless an allusion to the serpent in Eden. Then he drops the figure and plainly states that the dragon represents Satan. Beginning with deceiving Eve in the garden, it has been his business to deceive mankind ever since. His effort then was and ever afterward has been to discredit or pervert God’s word–make people believe that God does not mean what he says, or means what he does not say.

Satan being a spirit, the only “chain” that can effectively bind him–restrain or defeat him–is God’s word. In what was the world’s greatest battle between right and wrong, Jesus defeated the devil at every turn with “it is written.” (Matthew 4.) When God’s word has free course in directing human life, theindividual can safely protect himself against any device of Satan. When mankind has the right to use that protection at will, Satan is “bound” in the only way that is consistent with man’s nature. Satan’s binding does not mean the destruction of all evil; though under restraint, Satan still operates through his angels who pose as ministers of righteousness. (2Co 11:13-15.)

The duration of this binding is stated as a thousand years. Is this a symbolic or literal number? As usual expositors are disagreed. To apply the day-year theory would give the enormous amount of 365,000 years. This appears wholly out of proportion with other numbers in this book that seem to fit the theory. If to be taken literally, the exact beginning and ending of the period could not be fixed definitely. With these difficulties to meet, it seems better to consider it a symbolic number. Other numbers such as 3, 7, 10, and 12 appear to carry a spiritual significance. In Ezekiel 39 we have a description of the overthrow of Gog, and verse 9 says the Israelites should make fires of their weapons for “seven years.” Certainly this means the complete destruction of their implements of war, not that it would take seven literal years to burn them. Through Moses God threatened Israel with seven times more, or seven times, punishment if they persistently rebelled against him. (Lev 26:18; Lev 26:21; Lev 26:24; Lev 26:28.) Evidently this does not mean exactly seven times, for their sins required punishment far more times than seven. It means that they would be fully punished as their sins deserved. So the definite number-1,000 years–is probably used for a long but indefinite period. “Showing lovingkindness unto thousands” (Exo 20:6) means showing it to all of the class mentioned ; “thousands of thousands” (5:11) means a countless number. So in this text the word “thousand” most likely means an indefinite length of time, but long enough for the symbols to find complete fulfillment.

3 and cast him into the abyss, and shut it, and sealed it over him,–In vision John saw the woman driven into the wilderness for 1,260 day-years (Rev 12:1-6), yet that did not occur till several centuries later, when the apostate church was fully developed. Shutting and sealing the abyss indicates the certainty of the influence of Satan’s power being restrained. The true church apparently disappeared as one does who goes into a wilderness; but, though unseen as an organized body, it still existed in the hearts and lives of individual faithful saints. So Satan during the thousand years has his power restrained, yet he still has through his unseen agents and workers means for deceiving those who are willing. During the 1,260-year period he exercised a practically unlimited power through the papacy and the kingdom it controlled. The millennium–the period of his being bound–must of necessity begin after that power was broken; and, for the same reason, it must have begun when that power was broken.

that he should deceive the nations no more, until the thousand years should be finished:–As the purpose of the binding was to prevent Satan’s deceiving the nations, then the binding would consist in changing the situation which made the deception easily effective. During the papal supremacy the Bible, man’s only real protection against the devil’s power, was practically taken away from the people. With the Bible removed, it was no trouble for him to deceive the nations by superstition, false miracles, and pretended infallibility. When the Protestant Reformation broke the Roman religious yoke of bondage by giving the Bible back to the people with liberty to read and obey it without human dictation, Satan Was bound in the fair meaning of the text. Through this right has come the privilege of restoring and maintaining apostolic congregations, which is a most fortunate and happy time for those who really desire to be pleasing to God. For emphasis the main thought is repeated. The millennial period is not a time of absolute and universal righteousness upon earth but a time of such restraint of Satan’s power that all may have the privilege to serve God as the Scriptures teach, if they so desire. It is a period in direct comparison with the previous one of supreme papal authority. With this view we must conclude that we are now in the millennium. When it will end we do not know. This position, at least, has the plausible advantage of harmonizing with plain facts of religious history and leaves man free and responsible for his own conduct–a thing that must be true while men are in the flesh.

That this view may be clearly understood a brief review of the main changes in church history is here repeated. It required about 300 years for the church to pass through the pagan Roman persecutions and receive recognition from the Emperor Constantine. Something over 200 years more were necessary to develop the papacy–Paul’s “man of sin.” (2Th 2:3.) This came through the slow process of corrupting divine truth with the “precepts of men”; or, viewing it from another standpoint, exalting men to unscriptural positions until the bishop of Rome was declared the Universal Bishop of the church. This was followed by the 1,260 years of papal rule, after which began the millennium. Any true interpretation must harmonize with these well-known historical facts.

after this he must be loosed for a little time.–That is, after the millennium ends, Satan must be loosed, not permanently, but for a “little time.” There is no way to determine how long the “little time” may be, but it is the period that divides the millennium from the final judgment. It may be short in comparison with the 1,000 years, or with the whole history of the church up to that time.

Commentary on Rev 20:1-3 by Foy E.Wallace

1. The angel coming down out of heaven. And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit-Rev 20:1-2.

The angel was Christ as a messenger of the gospel. The key to the abyss held by the evil angel in chapter 9:1 had been taken by Christ, signifying his power over death and hades, as stated in Rev 1:18. The chain represented the very purpose of the gospel to prevent the devil from deceiving men. Bound–not permitted to deceive–signified the triumph of the truth over error. A thousand years–as in all other places where the phrase was mentioned–denoted completeness. Here it had reference to the complete success of the cause over persecutions, and had no reference to a cycle of time. The triumph of Christ over Satan had been fully set forth in Mat 12:29 and Luk 11:21 in the parable of the strong mans house; When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace: but when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth the spoils. So Jesus did in overcoming Satan and spoiling his goods and bringing to nought his power. So says Paul both in Col 2:15 and Heb 2:14, as previously shown in this series.

2. Satan cast into the abyss. And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.”-Rev 20:3.

In the vision Satan returned from his prowling to his diabolical abode in ignominious and complete defeat. His abysmal abode was shut by the angel with the key to the bottomless pit that he held; which angel also set a seal upon him, as an authoritative act; such as the seal of state stamped on the documents signed by officials of government.

The purpose of this satanic imprisonment was that he should deceive the nations no more–that is, in the idolatry of Caesar-worship, a repetition of the previous symbols of the mark and image of the beast in the heathen emperor worship.

The next clause till the thousand years be fulfilled referred to the complete victory over the imperial persecutors, after which Satan was represented as being unleashed to exert influence, not in the form of persecution, but in the spiritual conflict between heathenism and Christianity–a symbolic representation of the upsurge of heathenism.

Commentary on Rev 20:1-3 by Walter Scott

SATAN CONFINED IN THE ABYSS.

Rev 20:1-3. – And I saw an angel descending from the Heaven, having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold of the dragon,the ancient serpent who is (the) devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years. And cast him into the abyss, and shut (it) and sealed (it) over him, that he should not any more deceive the nations until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be loosed for a little time. The vision before us discloses an event, the natural sequence to that related at the close of the previous chapter, and yet sufficiently distinct to form a separate vision. There are three persons consigned to the lake of fire without trial – the Beast, the False Prophet, and the Assyrian (Isa 30:1-33) at the commencement of the millennial reign; also the devil at the close of the reign. Having seen the two chief ministers of Satan,the leaders of the hosts on earth opposed to the Lamb and His saints, (The powers referred to in Zec 14:2 and Psa 83:1-18 are gathered against Jerusalem and the Jews, those in Rev 19:1-21 are gathered against the Lamb and His heavenly saints. The former have their seat in the east; the latter in the west. Thus there will be two vast hostile camps, in policy and aim opposed to each other. The north-eastern powers will be under Gog and his subordinate the king of the north. The western powers and the chiefs of Europe generally will be under the Beast and his subordinate in political authority the False Prophet or Antichrist.) ignominiously cast alive into the lake of fire, followed by the destruction of their armies, we ask, What about the unseen spiritual being who goaded and lured on to destruction his agents and their followers? Does he escape? No! Summary judgment overtakes him as it did them. They are dealt with on earth by Christ; the devil is the subject of Gods judgment from on high. The dragon, the real instigator of the rebellion so effectually crushed, is seized upon by an angel from Heaven and chained up in the abyss or bottomless pit. (Abyss signifies deep (Luk 8:31) or bottomless. The word occurs nine times in the New Testament, seven of these in the Apocalypse, one in Luke as we have seen, and the other in Rom 10:7. Out of it the Beast ascends, and into it Satan is cast (Rev 17:8; Rev 20:3). The abyss is a place, but the locality is undetermined.) He will be sent to join his followers in the lake of fire a thousand years after. He has yet other work to do on earth, but till then he is shut up and prevented from doing further mischief.

It must be borne in mind that Satan, from the time of his expulsion from the heavens (Rev 12:9), is on the earth unseen by mortal eye, but actually on the earth, blighting, destroying, and ruining everything which has the semblance of standing for God. Thus the angel, the minister of his punishment, is witnessed by the Seer descending from the Heaven. Satan is seized on earth. It is a reality, although no human eye may witness it.

The angel has the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. One need scarcely insist upon the symbolic character of the scene, for that seems evident on the surface. The figures, however, of the key and chain surely denote that God is supreme even over the satanic region of the abyss. Thus instrumentally, by angelic agency, He locks (the key) up Satan and binds him (the chain) secure in the abyss for a thousand years. (The key of the bottomless pit in Rev 9:2 is to open it; in Rev 20:1 to close it.) His liberty is curtailed and his sphere of operation narrowed. He is effectually curbed and restrained from doing further mischief on the earth until his prison door is unlocked (v. 7). Until the fall (Gen 3:1-24) Satans place was on high; consequent on the introduction of sin into the world the Heavens and earth were the enlarged sphere of his operations; then on his expulsion from the heavenly places the earth and the abyss are in a manner given over to him; now, as we have just seen, he is shut up in the abyss, confined there during the millennial reign; then for a brief season he is once more permitted to work his will on the earth, and seduce the nations from their nominal allegiance to Christ glorified and reigning; finally he is cast into the lake of fire for ever and ever.

The names of the dragon are mentioned in the order in which they occur in Rev 12:9. There, however, he is termed the great dragon. As the dragon he is the embodiment of cruelty. As the serpent he is the personification of guile. As the devil he is the arch tempter of men. As Satan he is the declared opponent of Christ and His people. (For a fuller elucidation of these names see remarks on Rev 12:8.) The term dragon represents a real historical entity, an actual living person with whom every responsible creature on earth has to do. His power and presence are, of course, controlled and limited, as he is but a creature, but his agents are so numerous and diversified, and increasingly active in their masters service, that some have gone the length of claiming for Satan the attributes of omnipotence and omniscience. These, however, are divine attributes, and necessarily belong to the Creator alone.

The dragon is seized and cast into the pit, which is then locked up and sealed over him (see R.V.). The seal affixed to the stone upon the mouth of the den of lions (Dan 6:17), as also upon the stone rolled to the door ofthe sepulchre (Mat 27:60; Mat 27:64; Mat 27:66), intimates that the judicial and governing authority pledged itself to retain in secure custody its prisoner. The door of the abyssis securely fastened.

Rev 20:3. – No more deceive the nations (Probably there is special reference to the deception used in gathering the nations as such to Armageddon (Rev 16:13-14; Rev 20:8).) until the thousand years were completed. The career of Satan from his first connection with the human race (Gen 3:1-24) till his imprisonment in the abyss has been one of cruel, heartless deception. He has falsified the character of God; he has blinded the minds of men to the nature of sin and to its eternal consequences, and has so misrepresented the Gospel that millions are morally ruined by the ready acceptance of that which is another gospel. The whole world lieth in the evil one is indeed a sweeping declaration (1Jn 5:19, R.V.). This solemn statement is in no wise exaggerated. The race in its then living entirety, save the elect, is at the last gathered under the banner of Satan, only to find out when too late that all have been miserably deceived (Rev 20:7-9).

A THOUSAND YEARS.

The term a thousand years occurs in our chapter six times (vv. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7). Three out of the number are connected with Satan; two of them assert the reign of the saints with Christ; the sixth intimates the period between the resurrection of the saints and that of the wicked. All these six occurrences of the period a thousand years refer to the same time, but, of course, viewed in different connections, and, in our judgment, should be regarded not in any symbolic sense, but as describing an exact and literal denomination of time. The term THE MILLENNIUM as a designation referring to the period of the Lords reign – public and personal with His saints – over the earth is gathered from this chapter. According to Jewish reasoning the six millenniums drawing to a close answer to the six days in which the heavens and earth were made, the seventh sabbatic day of rest looking forward to that long and blessed Sabbath of a thousand years. There remaineth therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God (Heb 4:9, R.V.).

Rev 20:3. – After these things he must be loosed for a little time. A group of connected events precede the loosing of Satan. After these things refers to more than the imprisonment in the abyss. After the destruction of Babylon, after the marriage of the Lamb, after the war on earth, after the utter rout and destruction of the Beast,the False Prophet, and their armies, and after the binding of the dragon and sealing of the abyss and Satans long captivity of a thousand years he is loosed for a little time. There are two brief periods in the coming crisis connected with the career of Satan, in both of which he displays unusual activity. First, from his expulsion from Heaven till chained in the abyss; second, from his release out of the abyss till cast into the lake of fire.

Commentary on Rev 20:1-3 by E.M. Zerr

Rev 20:1. Bottomless pit is from ABUSSOS which means the place in Hades where angels are cast when they sin and where wicked men go when they die.

Rev 20:2. In this verse the four words serpent, dragon, Devil and Satan are applied to the same being, so that we need have no doubt as to the one who is meant. Thousand years is a figurative expression that is not bound by the calendar- In symbolic language the Bible does not restrict itself to exact mathematical values of the numbers mentioned. Sometimes the period will be longer and at others it will be shorter. I shall cite one or two examples by way of illustration on the matter of this use of figurative time. In Dan 9:24 a prediction is made of seventy weeks and we know it actually means 490 years. In chapter 6:11 of our book the phrase little season really was to be until the Reformation which was several centuries in the future. The angel bound Satan with the chain mentioned in the preceding verse, and the chain was the Bible that was to be given back to the people in their own language. That chain bound him from the nations, which means the heads of the nations were able to see their rights by the information of the Book and realized that the devil had been deceiving them. When that occurred they resisted him and that chained him from them.

Rev 20:3. Cast him into the bottomless pit is symbolical of the restrictions that were placed upon Satan as to his influence over nations, for he has been there personally all the time. The restrictions were caused by the chain of the Bible that had been placed IL, he possession of the national leaders. (See again the note at beginning of this chapter.) These restrictions were to continue as long as the leaders of nations and other heads of the channels of thought continued their active defense of the Book. Knowing that human weakness would assert itself causing a letting down of the activities for the truth, the Lord saw the advantage it would give Satan and that he would again come out in his fight against the Bible. Hence it is stated that after the thousand years were expired–after the restrictions of the Bible had weakened due to the loss of activities of the professed friends of truth–Satan would be loosed a little season. This little season is the same as the “battle” of verse 8 which will be discussed at that place.

Commentary on Rev 20:1-3 by Burton Coffman

Rev 20:1

The interpretation of this chapter is largely determined by the view already taken of the preceding chapters. After the introductory letters to the seven churches, the vision of the final judgment has already appeared six times in the preceding chapters:

In the relation of the seals (Rev 6:12-17).

In the relation of the trumpets, the judgment of the world city (Rev 11:14-19).

In the harvest of the earth (Rev 14:14-20).

At the pouring out of the vials of wrath (Rev 16:12-20).

In the judgment of the harlot (Rev 18:21-24).

In the judgment of the scarlet beast (Rev 19:19-21).

From this, it should naturally be expected that the seventh and final presentation of the judgment should describe the overthrow of the devil himself; and that is exactly what is depicted in this chapter (Rev 20:7-15).

There is only one judgment day visible in the entire Bible; and these seven views of it are all descriptive of one and the same event. Each of the seven sections of this prophecy (classified according to the judgment scenes) is a recapitulation in the chronological sense, all of the prophecies principally relating to the time between the two Advents of Christ.

Beginning back in Rev 12:1, the three great enemies of Christ were introduced in successive visions: (1) the dragon, identified as Satan himself; (2) the sea-beast with seven heads and ten horns, identified as persecuting government; and (3) the land-beast, later identified as the harlot, and still later as the false prophet, identifiable throughout as false religion, first as paganism, then as apostate Christianity and the derivatives of it.

Significantly, in this prophecy, all three of these great enemies are vanquished in reverse order: the harlot (Revelation 18), the sea-beast (in his final form of the “ten kings,” the eighth head) (Revelation 19), and the devil (Revelation 20). All of these enemies perish in the lake of fire simultaneously. And this is a good place to pay some particular attention to the “lake of fire.”

“THE LAKE OF FIRE”

Like practically everything else in Revelation, this is not literal, because the same terror is envisioned as a pool, or river of blood two hundred miles long (Rev 14:20), the total silence and inactivity of being found “no more at all” (Rev 18:21-24), and the innumerable dead bodies of the kings, captains, mighty men, small and great, etc., with the birds gorging themselves upon their flesh, as well as upon the flesh of animals (horses)! None of these figures is literal; yet, strangely enough, the “lake of fire” seems generally to be construed as a literal reality. Of course, it could be! But, as we have pointed out before in this series, the figures which are used to describe this reality, whatever it is, do not fit neatly into any patent description of it. Christ called it an “outer darkness” (Mat 8:12; Mat 22:13; Mat 15:30), “eternal fire” (Mat 25:41), “hell, the unquenchable fire” (Mar 9:44), “hell, where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched” (Mar 9:48). In this latter reference, Jesus seems to have referred to the valley of Hinnom, the New Testament Gehenna, which was the garbage dump of Jerusalem. It is clear enough that no imaginable visualization can include all these figures.

Therefore, we do not think it is profitable to offer any description of this terrible place of eternal punishment. The thought that overwhelms us is, “How utterly unspeakable and absolutely terrible must be a punishment which requires such metaphors to represent it!” Recognizing that this language does indeed seem to be metaphorical affords no relief. The reality is always greater than the symbol of it!

This chapter describes the overthrow of Satan in hell; but the harlot is not first destroyed, then the beast, then the devil; they all continue alive and operative until the last and all go down together. Nevertheless, this chapter relates particularly to Satan’s overthrow and to the nature and extent of his opposition to God throughout the whole Christian period. It is not a description of the church’s fortunes on earth, except as they are related to the overthrow of the devil. The “thousand years” mentioned six times in Rev 20:1-7 relate to the limitations which God imposed upon Satan throughout the Christian age and have no reference at all to the so-called “millennium” of popular fancy. Due to the widespread false theories regarding this, we have included here a special study of it.

THE MILLENNIUM

I. The history of the doctrine. The first millennarians were the heretics who troubled the church of Thessalonica with their theory that “the day of the Lord is just at hand” (2Th 2:2); and the canonical 2Thessalonians was dispatched by the apostle Paul for the express purpose of refuting them. During the first three centuries of the Christian era, the theory recurred in various forms a number of times. Papias, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and other notables were premillennarians of varying degrees. Some of their speculations would put modern millennialists to shame:

The elders that saw John, the disciple of the Lord, state that they heard him say how the Lord used to teach in regard to those times (the millennium) and say: The days will come when vines shall grow, each having ten thousand branches, and each branch ten thousand twigs, and each twig ten thousand shoots, and each shoot ten thousand clusters, and in every cluster ten thousand grapes; and every grape would yield twenty-five meters of wine![1]

As is so often true, one extreme begets another, and the wild millennial theories of the Ante-Nicene period were destroyed in the “spiritualized” speculations of Augustine and Origen. Origen invented the doctrine of purgatory, and Augustine came up with original sin and total hereditary depravity. Origen was of the third century and Augustine of the fourth; and, after the fourth century, premillennarianism became a dormant heresy, dormant, but not dead.

It sprang to life again in the 19th century, due to: (1) a revival of interest in studying the Scriptures; (2) the marvelous scientific advancements; and (3) the special activity of Satan which always appears with renewed preaching of the truth. This was the period that saw the epochal work of Stone, Kelly, Smith, Campbell, Scott, and many others. By the year 1843, the premillennarian prophet William Miller had over one million followers at a time when the total population of North America was only 16,000,000. He announced the end of the world in 1831, which was followed by an unusual meteorite shower on November 13,1833. That display of “the falling stars” confirmed the faith of many in Miller, as did also a comet in 1844. After several recalculations, he finally set the date of the End for October 23,1844.

Incredible numbers of people disposed of all earthly possessions and streamed out of Boston, Philadelphia, and other cities to the countryside to see the great event. Some wore white ascension robes; and one prominent Philadelphian in a white robe calmly stepped out of a third-story window to fly to heaven. Some tried to make it from high bridges. In Worcester, Massachusetts, a respectable citizen wearing turkey wings tried to make it from the top of an elm tree. Thousands crawled around on their knees with others on their backs in imitation of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on an ass!

When the sun rose with the world still intact, Miller’s followers, with their robes damp and dirty, made their sorrowful return to homes and businesses, if fortunate enough to have either left. Old, weary, and tired, Miller checked and rechecked his calculations for several years and then died still wondering. It does seem that such a disaster would have given other “prophets” pause; but Uriah Smith, Charles T. Russell, and “Judge” Rutherford took up where Miller left off. The world would come to an end every few years. Sensational leaflets announcing that “millions now living will never die” were placed in every home in the United States announcing the end of the world in 1914, later “revised” to 1919. Finally, Rutherford decided that “it did end”! in 1914. His followers, Jehovah’s Witnesses, still preach that it did![2]

II. Complexity of the doctrine. Two separate systems of millennarianism are pre-millennarianism and post-millennarianism, as related to the coming of Christ. The “pre’s” believe Christ will come before the millennium, and the “post’s” believe the millennium will occur first. The “pre” type is more common. Here is an incomplete summary of what is taught:

1. At the start of the millennium, Christ will literally return to earth and personally take charge of all things for literally one thousand years.

2. He will reign from Jerusalem on the literal throne of David.

3. The righteous dead shall be raised with immortal bodies to help the Lord reign over people with normal bodies.

4. The Lord will personally convert the whole world, who, though they reject the gospel, will receive him.

5. After 1,000 years, the Lord will suddenly turn the devil loose, and the Great Tribulation will follow.

6. The righteous will be caught up (the Rapture) to escape all this.

7. There will be a series of judgments ranging from two to seven, depending on the form of the theory believed.

8. During the Great Tribulation, Enoch and Elijah, who never died, will return to earth, preach Christ, suffer martyrdom, and then be raised from the dead and go on preaching!

9. The Jews will all be converted and rally around Christ in Jerusalem. Rejecting the gospel, they will nevertheless accept Christ!

10. The church becomes a step-child, or a concubine, in all millennially related speculations. It will be totally swallowed up in the glories of the millennium.

11. Resurrections are as plentiful as judgments, depending on the shade of the heresy advocated.

12. Some even assert that the wicked dead will rise and be given a second chance to accept Christ.

These are only a few of the “stock in trade” speculations of millennarians, and are merely typical. In all probability, this summary does not accurately represent the views of any particular brand of it.

III. Present status of the heresy. Some form of this speculation is today the accepted doctrine of countless thousands. It is not confined to denominational groups, but cuts across all party lines and labels. Whole congregations of many Protestant churches have been swallowed by it. The widespread de-emphasis of the importance of Christ’s church stems, in part, from this heresy.

Many books and study systems, and even some Bibles (notably, Scofield) and countless preachers are busy spreading this false doctrine. Some churches have lost all denominational identity, except that of the millennial label. The error is widespread, active, aggressive, and endemic.

IV. Doctrinal refutation. As Milligan wrote, “Millennialism is liable to sundry very grave objections, some of which seem to me to be wholly unanswerable.”[3] “This whole scheme is in my judgment, and not in mine only, but in that of the vast majority of believing Bible students of all the ages, entirely untenable.[4] “All of the creeds of the Christian church, ancient or modern, Catholic or Protestant, are amillennarian (non-millennarian). Chiliasm has not found recognition in any one of them.”[5] What are the objections?

Objections:

1. It is based upon a literalism of Rev 20:1-7, a passage which should be interpreted symbolically. It is ridiculous to suppose that the devil could be caught and tied with a literal chain and imprisoned in a pit with no bottom in it!

2. The literal return of Christ to earth could not add anything to him who already has “all authority” in heaven and upon earth (Mat 28:18-20). Christ is already seated on the right hand of God (Col 3:1); bringing him back to earth and placing him in a literal throne in Jerusalem would be more than the equivalent of demoting a five-star general to the grade of private.

3. The physical and liberal return of Christ to earth would cancel and nullify all the benefits of his ascension. He said, “It is expedient for you that I go away; for, if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you” (Joh 16:7). The Holy Spirit could not operate if Christ were literally on earth. His return would mean the end of the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

4. His physical, literal return would cancel and deny his office as the holy high priest of our sacred religion. “Now, if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all” (Heb 8:4).

5. When Christ comes again, he will give the kingdom back to the Father (1Co 15:22-24). The Second Advent will be the occasion when Christ ends his reign, not when he begins it.

6. Christ is now reigning on David’s throne (Act 2:30-31). The only possible objection to this is that it places David’s throne in heaven; but that is exactly where the Old Testament says it would be (Psa 89:35-37 KJV).

7. The whole system belittles the church, a view flatly contradicted by Eph 3:21; Act 20:28, etc.

8. It denies the power of the gospel. The gospel cannot save people, especially the Jews, but Christ can! When Christ comes, it will not be to convert anybody, but to judge the ungodly sinners who rejected his gospel (2Th 2:8).

9. Such speculations deny the truth that “no man knoweth the day, nor the hour, of our Lord’s return” (Mat 24:36). One may only marvel at the gullibility of people who trust some “prophet” who pretends that he knows.

10. The whole complex of multiple resurrections and judgments prevalent in all phases of this heresy is contrary to the plain words of the whole Bible. There is only one literal resurrection of the dead and only one judgment, repeatedly referred to by Christ as “the judgment.” Scofield Bible fabricates multiple judgments; but this is a perversion of the sacred Scriptures.

11. The millennial heresies, whether “pre” or “post,” deny the many New Testament passages (1Co 10:11; Act 2:16-17, etc.) which designate the current era as “the last days.”

12. The millennialists read into Revelation 20 an immense amount of material that does not belong there.[6]

13. There is not a word in the entire Bible about any “Millennium,” except as it is imported into the first seven verses of this chapter.

14. The many theories constructed on these verses are mutually contradictory and destructive of each other. There is no generally accepted or agreed upon theory of a millennium. Thoughtless and reckless indeed is the man who can devote his time, money, study, talent, and teaching to that which at best is an uncertain and illusive theory, and one that practically the entire company of Christian scholarship of all ages and shades of belief have found it utterly impossible to accept. In a word, the theory is absolutely preposterous and ridiculous.

We not only reject all millennial theories, but also the supportive interpretations which have been concocted in order to bolster them. Such things as the Great Tribulation, the Rapture, the Resurrection of the Martyrs in a separate resurrection, which have no proof at all in the New Testament, are among the concepts rejected.

[1] J. C. Ayer, Jr., Source Book of Ancient Church History (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons).

[2] See Reader’s Digest, January 1943, for many of these details.

[3] Robert Milligan, The Scheme of Redemption (St. Louis: Bethany Press, 1960), p. 571.

[4] Albertus Pieters, Studies in the Revelation of St. John (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1954), p. 295.

[5] Ibid., p. 311.

[6] Albertus Pieters, op. cit., p. 296.

And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. (Rev 20:1)

An angel coming down out of heaven … This angel is not Christ; one nameless angel is all that Christ needed to dispatch Satan finally and irrevocably.

Having the key of the abyss … “In all the places where abyss is used (Rev 9:1; Rev 2:11; Rev 11:7; Rev 17:8, including Luk 8:31), the word signifies the present abode of Satan and his angels, not the place of their final punishment.”[7] In only one New Testament passage, does it mean anything different (Rom 10:7). The “key” here indicates that, “Power is given to this angel over Satan during the time of the world’s existence.”[8]

And a great chain, in his hand … The Greek text here is literally “upon his hand” (ASV margin), and this corresponds to the word of God being “upon the hand” of the angel in Rev 10:2. Thus the chain is seen to be the word of God. Who can conceive of any other “chain” that would restrain and control the activity of Satan? One little word of Christ is enough to bind Satan for a thousand years. Hendriksen also identified this passage with 12:7-9, where another scene of Satan’s restraint is given.[9] There also the period of binding is the entire Christian age; and this is the key to understanding the meaning of the 1,000 years in this passage. In that passage, the woman was protected from Satan a thousand, two hundred and three score days, the same period as the binding about to be related here, meaning in both cases the whole Christian age.

[7] A. Plummer, The Pulpit Commentary, Vol. 22, Revelation (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1950), p. 470.

[8] Ibid.

[9] William Hendriksen, More than Conquerors (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1956), p. 221.

Rev 20:2

And he laid hold on the dragon, the old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years,

Dragon … serpent … devil … and Satan … Note the fourfold name of the evil one. This ties in with the 12th chapter where this quadruple designation first occurs (Rev 12:9), and where are also mentioned the 1,260 days. Neither the 1,000 years here nor the 1,260 days there should be literalized. Both refer to the same period of time, all the time between the two Advents of Christ.

And bound him for a thousand years … “This means during the entire gospel age.”[10] The effective binding of Satan took place in the events of the Incarnation. Satan had already been thrown out of heaven (Rev 12:7-9); therefore, it is some more restricted phase of Satan’s binding that is revealed here.

The “binding” here is exactly that referred to in Mat 12:29, where Jesus said, concerning his salvation of people, “How can one enter into the house of the strong man (Satan) and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man?” Every saved person since Christ carne is proof of Satan’s being bound throughout the whole period of anybody’s being saved “in Christ.” Not one soul could ever have been saved unless Satan had first been bound.

But people will say, “Well, if Satan is bound now, I would sure hate to see him loosed!” Maybe Christ knows Satan a lot better than people who talk like that. The world itself will probably not stand a month when Satan is finally loosed “a little while.”

Just how is Satan bound? He is bound in that he cannot destroy the Bible; he cannot tempt a child of God more than he is able to bear; God makes a way of escape with every temptation, etc. See more on this in my Commentary on Matthew, p. 172. Pieters mentioned this interpretation as being favored by Morris, Lenski, Warfield, Masselink, Milligan, etc., adding that, “There is truth in it.”[11] We find any other view untenable. The period of Satan’s binding is coextensive in every particular with the times when people are being saved by obeying the gospel. Again, to paraphrase Christ’s question, “How could Christ save anyone at any time when Satan was not bound?” (Mat 12:29).

[10] Ibid.

[11] Albertus Pieters, op. cit., p. 299.

Rev 20:3

and cast him into the abyss and shut it, and sealed it over him, that he should deceive the nations no more, until the thousand years should be finished: after this he must be loosed for a little time.

Cast him into the abyss … shut it … sealed it … This merely stresses the effectiveness of the binding and restraint of the devil by divine power. The shutting and sealing are only the inert trappings of the metaphor.

Until the thousand years should be finished … The gospel age will finally close; and when the last person to accept the Son of God shall have done so, that age will end.

That he should deceive the nations no more … The contrast between the gospel age and the pre-Christian hardening of the Gentiles, as expounded by Paul in Romans 1, is in view here. Satan has never again achieved the complete mastery over the nations which characterized his domination of the pre-Christian Gentile world. This cannot mean that no individual will ever again be deceived by Satan; it merely means that the blessed knowledge of the truth shall always be available for those who truly desire and will receive it. This cannot deny that many shall be deceived because they reject the truth, not through being deceived, but with their eyes wide open, just like Adam sinned. Having rejected it through a moral decision against it, they will then receive the “strong delusion” of 2Th 2:11.

After this, he must be loosed for a little time … Some respected scholars identify the “little time” here with the whole dispensation, the “loosing” being applied to Satan’s operations against the vast majority who reject the truth, and the “binding” being applied to the effectual restraint of Satan as far as the righteous are concerned. The time-periods, a little time, and a thousand years, are therefore qualitative and not relative. However, we believe that the “little time” mentioned here means literally a brief period, beginning at the point after which God shall have finally achieved the full salvation of the total number of the redeemed, and lasting only a relatively very short while. Satan will be “loosed” without any restraint whatever during that brief period. Due to all that is revealed of Satan’s nature in the Bible, it cannot be supposed that the race of man, or the whole world, would continue very long after such an eventuality. See more on this in CMY, pp. 129-134. We must point out that in such an interpretation we might indeed have fallen into the constant danger that assails all commentators on Revelation, that of literalism. That some things in the prophecy are literal is certain; but just which are, and which are not, cannot always be accurately judged. Our interpretation of this requires the construction of “little while” in a literal sense, contrary to the generally figurative nature of the whole prophecy. However, there are a number of other examples of the same necessity throughout Revelation. Summarizing our interpretation of Rev 20:1-3, we have given the following meanings to the symbols:

The abyss is the present abode of Satan on the earth.

The key is the angel’s authority from God.

The chain is the word of God.

The dragon and serpent is Satan.

The 1,000 years is the gospel age.

Deceiving the nations no more means that the availability of the truth shall not fail from the earth.

The binding of Satan refers to the limitations imposed upon the devil regarding his hurting the righteous (Mat 12:29).

The binding of Satan took place in the events of the Incarnation of Christ (Mat 12:29).

The loosing of Satan “a little while” refers to the ravages of Satan when all men at least finally reject the truth.

Before going on, we shall notice some of the pertinent observations by various scholars on this famous passage:

The millennial theories are merely the revamping of the old Jewish dream that the Jews would dominate the whole world.[12] The origin of millennialism is not Christian, but is to be found in certain Jewish beliefs about the Messianic age which were common after 100 B.C.[13] This chapter describes not a millennium of the saints but the overthrow of Satan.[14] The binding of Satan and the casting of him into the abyss mean that during the gospel age Satan is unable to prevent the extension of the church.[15] This passage is parallel to 2Th 1:8, indicating that the binding of Satan extends to the Second Advent.[16] How long will this “little while” be? Merely long enough for Satan to gather his host and for the fire out of heaven to destroy them.[17] John never thinks of Satan as having a free hand. Again and again, “is given” was used when he speaks of any authority to do evil.[18] From these verses we must conclude that we are now in the millennium.[19]

Perhaps the greatest single obstacle to seeing the 1,000 years as a figure of our own age is the consecutive or sequential view of the several sections of this prophecy. To be sure, if Revelation is interpreted as giving a consecutive, chronological series of events throughout history, the fact of our just having had a view of the final judgment at the end of Revelation 19, would then have to mean that this binding of Satan, etc., comes after the judgment. In our interpretation, Satan was cast into hell (the lake of fire) in Rev 19:20; and that forces the understanding that the events of this chapter took place before that event. If not, will someone kindly explain to us how Satan got out of hell? This same problem exists in all the other sections of this prophecy concluded by visions of the final judgment; and, to us, this absolutely requires us to see not consecutive events in the prophecy, but repeated recapitulations in the seven sections.

Another great impediment to the acceptance of our interpretation of the millennium here was thus stated by Wilbur M. Smith:

If this war-ridden age of anarchy and atheistic communism is the Millennium, then the hopes created by the word of God must be abandoned.[20]

No doubt, many others feel the same way; and we have the utmost sympathy for those who are “hung up” on dreams of a Utopia on earth, where all shall be peace and light for an incredibly beautiful Golden Age; but, if the people who are thus deluded, can bear to hear, there are no promises of any such thing in the New Testament. We must through “many tribulations” enter into the kingdom of God (Act 14:22); we must “suffer with him” (Rom 8:17); all of the godly “shall suffer persecutions” (2Ti 3:12); all who follow Christ must “take up their cross daily” (Luk 9:23), etc. We could cite a hundred other such passages in the New Testament. Where did all this nonsense come from, anyway, that envisions that “Glorious Millennium” with the lemonade pools and the big rock candy mountain? People overwhelmed with such “hopes” did not get them out of the word of God, but out of the vain speculations of men. The very idea that for an entire, literal thousand years Christians shall be exempt from the sorrows, temptations, and tribulations of life is utterly foreign to the sacred Scriptures. The popular view of the millennium leaves out the essential quality of suffering in the Christian life. Back of the popular view of the millennium is a false, carnal view of salvation. The heresy eliminates tribulation by putting it in what they call the Great Tribulation and then rescuing the church from it by means of a so-called Rapture. The whole scheme is ingenious but absolutely wrong. There is no Great Tribulation in this prophecy, or anywhere else in the whole New Testament. There will be great tribulations, of course, many of them; and, in a real sense, the entire gospel age might be called “the great tribulation”; but no isolated event or series of events in history may be so designated.

People unconsciously tend to materialize the blessings in Christ. Some scholars even make the elevation of Constantine the Great to the throne of Rome the beginning of the millennium. Instead, it was the beginning of the inundation of the church by the world and one of the major steps toward the great apostasy and the onset of the Dark Ages. Yes, the elevation of Constantine was a great victory for Christians, but it did not mean that they were through with Satan; it heralded merely a change in Satan’s strategy.

[12] R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. John’s Revelation (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Augsburg Publishing House, 1943), p. 570.

[13] William Barclay, The Revelation of John (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1976), p. 187.

[14] A. Plummer, op. cit., p. 471.

[15] William Hendriksen, op. cit., p. 226.

[16] Michael Wilcock, I Saw Heaven Opened (Downers Grove, Illinois: Inter-Varsity Press, 1975), p. 190.

[17] R. C. H. Lenski, op. cit. p. 577.

[18] Leon Morris, Tyndale Commentaries, Vol. 20, The Revelation of St. John (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1969), p. 236.

[19] John T. Hinds, A Commentary on the Book of Revelation (Nashville: The Gospel Advocate Company, 1962), p. 272.

[20] Wilbur M. Smith, Wycliffe Bible Commentary, New Testament (Chicago: Moody Press, 1971), p. 1095.

Commentary on Rev 20:1-3 by Manly Luscombe

1 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. 2 He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years;After the judgment of the immoral mother of harlots, the persecuting governments and the false religious teachers, Satan has no defense left. He is left alone. This chapter describes his fate. An angel appears with a great key chain. A key on the chain is the key to the door of the bottomless pit. This angel grabs Satan, and binds him for a thousand years. If the thousand years is symbolic of the Christian Age, then, some will ask, in what way is Satan bound? Is Satan bound today? Absolutely!

1. The word bound means to restrict. One might put a dog on a leash and tie it to a tree. The dog can move. He can run around. But, his area of activity is limited. This is the intent of the text here.

2. Satan is limited is several ways. He is not able to control Gods people. We have the power to resist Satan and he will flee from us. (Jas 4:7) Satan is not able to threaten us with death. Christ overcame death, and Satan. (Heb 2:14) Before the cross of Christ there was no forgiveness of sins. Death (spiritual death) reigned supreme. Satan ruled the world until the death of Christ. The death of Christ pulled down his hold over man.

3. It has been observed that, during the lifetime of Jesus and the apostles, Satan was allowed to possess people. However, after the age of miracles ended, Satan has been restricted in his power and control

3 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. But after these things he must be released for a little while. He is tied to the tree by being cast into this pit. He is limited. He is on a short leash. He can only harm those that come close to him and allow him to harm them. We are reminded that we have the power to resist Satan. (1Pe 5:8-9) Satan wants us to come near to him. We have the power to walk away.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

Victory having been gained over the earthly manifestation of godlessness, it remains to deal with the power lying behind. The archenemy is described as “the dragon,” “the old serpent,” “the devil,” and, finally, as “Satan.” In this grouping of names is a remarkable unveiling of the very essence of evil.

A brief and the only account of the thousand years follows. It will be a time of perfect earthly government under the King appointed and anointed by God. That government will be administered by those who have lived by faith in the supernatural.

The description then turns to millennial issues. Evidently even during that period there will be those who have never submitted to essential righteousness. Satan is loosed out of prison to gather them together, and once more they act in definite hostility to the reign of righteousness. The issue is that Satan loses his usurped dominion forever. He is nevermore to be god of the world nor prince of the power of the air.

Then follows the account of the great assize. Books are opened, and a book. In the books things are written. Those whose names are in the book enter into blessedness. Those whose names are not found entered there are judged according to the things written in the books.

There comes a final movement. Death and Hades are cast into the lake of fire. Deepest death would seem to consist in the destruction of the possibility of dying. Beyond these words it is impossible to go in speculation, of hope or despair. Whatever that final sentence may mean, it is the sentence of Him who occupies the Great White Throne.

Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible

the Millennial Reign

Rev 20:1-6

In the preceding chapter the beast and the false prophet are depicted as meeting their punishment in the lake of fire. In this, the devil, death, and Hades are consigned to a similar fate. The imagery is apparently drawn from that fearful tragedy which left so deep an impression on the ancient world. See Gen 14:10; Gen 19:24; Jud 1:7. The last reference is especially interesting, because there the fate of the cities of the plain is quoted as an example of eternal fire. May it be ours to participate in the first resurrection!

Let our loins be girded and our lamps trimmed, that we may be found of Christ in peace, at our posts, and prepare to enter with Him into the bridal feast. This is a more solemn and critical consideration than the majority of Christians seem to suppose. In fellowship with their Lord, His people are to exert in a godly direction the same kind of influence over the affairs of men, as the rulers of darkness in an ungodly sense now exercise. Thank God, every morning brings that blessed day nearer.

Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

Chapter Twenty The Millennium And The Great White Throne

It is often said by those who object to the doctrine of an earthly millennium, that the term itself is not found in the Bible. They insist that neither in the Old nor in the New Testaments do we ever read of a millennium. They argue from this that the teaching is manmade, not derived from the Word of God. We might reply that the mere fact that a certain term is not used in Scripture does not necessarily prove that the doctrine for which the term stands is not taught there. The word trinity is not found in the Bible, but all sound Christians admit the doctrine of three persons in one God. The word substitution is not there either; but it is written, He was wounded for our transgressions (Isa 53:5), and that is substitution. Where will you find the terms, eternal sonship, deity, fall of man, depravity, incarnation, impeccability (as applied to Christ), and many more of similar character? Certainly not on the pages of our English Bibles. But all these terms mentioned stand for great truths unmistakably taught in the Book and are a vital part of the teaching of Christianity. So the mere omission of a title or name of a doctrine does not prove the absence of the doctrine itself, nor does it prove that it is manmade. However, we are not shut up to reasoning of this kind in regard to the millennium. The word in question is the Latin equivalent of an expression that is found six times in the chapter that now demands our attention. It simply means a thousand years; just as a century means one hundred years, or a jubilee indicates the expiration of fifty years.

A millennium then is a time-period. It does not necessarily carry with it any thought of perfection or happiness, nor of an era of displayed divine government. Almost six millenniums have elapsed since God put man on this globe. There is another millennium and a fraction yet to run before the course of time is finished. That last thousand years is the period that we are now to consider. I trust to show that it is the predicted kingdom age of the prophets and the dispensation of the fulness of times of the New Testament (Eph 1:10). It is not only in what some have called an obscure passage in the Revelation that we read of this good time coming. It is taught everywhere in Scripture.

The Binding of Satan (Rev 20:1-3)

The binding of the arch-foe of God and man, is the first notable event of this reign of righteousness (1-3). Without attempting to explain all the symbols here used, it is enough to say that the passage very definitely indicates that there is a coming time when men will no longer be deceived and led astray by the great tempter. Ever since his victory over our first parents in Eden, this tempter has been the persistent and malignant foe of mankind. By his wiles untold millions have been defrauded of their birthright privileges. If men sin during the millennium it will not be on account of having been deceived. It will be simply because of self-will and the yielding to the lusts of their own hearts. For we need to remember that the kingdom age is not to be a dispensation of sinlessness. There will be some, even in that blessed time, who will dare to act in defiance of the will of God but they will quickly be dealt with in deserved judgment. Such cases, I take it, will be very exceptional, but Scripture makes it plain that there will be offenses even when Gods King reigns over the earth.

The First Resurrection (Rev 20:4-6)

In the present dispensation of grace, those who will live godly in Christ Jesus suffer persecution; righteousness suffers. But in the millennium righteousness will reign. A king shall reign in righteousness (Isa 32:1). In the eternal state, which follows the millennium, righteousness will dwell. It will be at home, and every adverse thing will be forever banished from the new heavens and the new earth.

Daniel prophesied of the time coming when the saints shall possess the kingdom (7:18). The words of Rev 20:4 agree with this: 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 and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. We have here, if I understand the passage correctly, the last cohort of the first resurrection. Our Lord Himself, the saints raised at the rapture of the church, and the witnessing remnant that were slain and raised up in the seventieth week of Daniel all share in the administration of the fullness of the seasons. This is how the late William Kelly translated the expression rendered in our Bibles the dispensation of the fullness of times (Eph 1:10). These saints appear in glory with the Lord. But we are not to understand that either He or they are to return to earth to live. Their relationship to the earth will be, I presume, very much like that of the angels in the patriarchal dispensation. They will be able to appear and disappear at will and exercise a benevolent oversight on behalf of those who live in this world. Unto the angels hath he not put into subjection the world to come, whereof we speak (Heb 2:5). That world will be subjected to the Son of man, and all who have shared with Him in His rejection will be associated with Him. These are the throne-sitters first mentioned. With them will be the rest of the tribulation saints, who will suffer death rather than deny their God in the awful days of antichrists ascendancy. Their rapture will be when the Lord appears for the establishment of the kingdom.

But the rest of the dead, lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection (Rev 20:5). This does not militate against the teaching already advanced. The first cohort of the first resurrection will be summoned from their graves prior to the tribulation period and the second in the midst of that time of trouble. We have here a summary. All of these classes together make up the first resurrection-the resurrection of life, which is thus distinguished from the resurrection of judgment. Between these two will elapse the entire millennial age. The unsaved will remain in their graves until the heavens and the earth pass away. Their souls in Hades (erroneously rendered hell in some versions, but really the state between death and resurrection) and their bodies in the grave, they await the day of judgment at the end of time.

Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years (6, italics added). This is the kingdom described in such glowing terms by Isaiah. Throughout his entire prophecy he saw, through faiths telescope, the glorious time when Israel and Judah will be one people in their own land. They will be restored in soul to God and dwell in peace every man under his own vine and fig tree. The glory of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. He wrote how even nature itself would respond to Messiahs rule. The wilderness and the solitary place will be glad for it, and the desert will rejoice and blossom as the rose. The animal creation too will be delivered from the curse. They will not hurt nor destroy in all Gods holy mountain. The lion will eat straw like the ox. The lamb will lie down with the lion, and a little child shall lead them (Isa 11:6). All nations will then ask the way to Zion, and Jerusalem will become the metropolis, not only of a rejuvenated Palestine, but of the whole earth.

Jeremiah takes up the same happy strain. He foresaw the God of Israel sending fishers out into the sea of the nations, fishing out His people no matter where they may be hidden and bringing them back to the land of their fathers. He saw the city built again and inhabited by a peaceful, happy nation under the reign of the righteous Branch whom God has promised to raise up unto David. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, the Lord our righteousness (Jer 23:6). Then they will no longer need to teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know [Him], from the least to the greatest (Heb 8:11).

Ezekiel added to the wondrous story and told of the Spirit being poured out from on high. He described the service of the regenerated Israel, a priestly nation through whom the law of God goes out to all the lands of the nations. He depicted the millennial temple and even told us how the land is to be divided among the tribes. Ezekiel does not close his remarkable book until he can say, The name of the city from that day shall be, [Jehovah-Shammah] The Lord is there (Eze 48:35).

All the visions of Daniels companion apocalypse conclude with the bringing in of the fifth universal kingdom. This he told us is the kingdom of the Son of man, which is to displace every other and is to stand forever. This is the Stone cut out without hands that falls on the feet of the Gentile image and grinds it to powder. Then it becomes a great mountain and fills the whole earth. This is the kingdom conferred on the Son of man by the Ancient of days. Then the bodies of the beasts (symbolizing the four great empires that have borne rule over all the civilized earth) will be cast into the burning flame.

Hosea showed how Messiah would come in lowly grace, but rejected by Israel, He would go and return to His place until they acknowledged their sin. When they seek His face He will return to restore their souls and to ransom them from the power of the grave. He will bring in everlasting righteousness and make them a blessing to all nations.

Joel saw the great tribulation in all its intensity, and the glory that will follow. He predicted the outpouring of the Spirit, not on Israel only, but on all flesh.

Amos prophesied of the gathering again of the outcasts of Israel and their resettlement in their land under Jehovahs perfect rule.

Obadiah, who wrote the shortest of all the prophecies, though he wrote chiefly of judgment on Edom, declared triumphantly, The kingdom shall be the Lords (1:21).

Only Jonah seems to have no reference to that day of Jehovahs power. Yet we may learn through him how wonderfully God will confirm the testimony of Hebrew missionaries in the beginning of the kingdom age, as they go forth to spread the gospel among those who have not heard His fame, nor seen His glory.

But Micah joined with Isaiah in describing the time when the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains, andpeople shall flow unto it, when the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. Then the nations shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks:neither shall they learn war any more (Mic 4:1-3).

Nahum predicted the judgments that will befall the enemies of Jehovah in the day of His preparation. Habakkuk, standing on his watchtower, saw the coming King bringing in the glory.

Zephaniah and Haggai pointed onwards to the restoration of Israel, and through Israel the blessing of the whole world. The Lord their God will be enthroned in the midst of them, and they will serve Him with one consent.

Zechariah, the prophet of glory, gave minute details not touched on by any other. He even told of the provision to be made for childrens playgrounds in the restored capital of Palestine, for he wrote, The broad places of the city shall be full of boys and girls, playing in the broad places thereof (Zec 8:5, literal rendering). He saw every spot in Jerusalem holy to the Lord, and all nations wending their way there from year to year to keep the feast of tabernacles.

Malachi completed the series and announced the soon-coming of the King, heralded by the prophet Elijah. He will tread down the wicked and sit as a refiner of silver, to purify the sons of Levi (Mal 3:1-3). He will make His name great from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same.

Thus to him give all the prophets witness (Act 10:43), that through His name remission of sins is now to be proclaimed among all nations. They also testify that He is to reign in righteousness over all the world when He comes the second time to claim the inheritance which is His by divine decree as Son and heir of all things. Then all the earth will rejoice for the eyes of the blind will be opened, the tongue of the dumb will sing, and the lame man will leap as the deer. Sorrow and sighing will flee away, and the Lord alone will be exalted for a thousand glorious years!

Satans Final Attack (Rev 20:7-10)

These verses record the amazing anticlimax to the story of human life on this earth. Who but God could have foreseen such an ending? It shows us the incorrigible evil of the heart of man if left to himself. While Satan is shut up in the abyss, there will be many born into the world whose obedience to the King will only be feigned. Their hearts will not be in it. When the devil is loosed for a little season at the end of the millennium, he finds a host of these ready to do his bidding and to join him in the last great rebellion against Omnipotence.

It is the old story of Satanic hatred to God and mans frailty told out again, but this time under the most favorable circumstances for man. Therefore his sin is absolutely inexcusable. Tested in the garden of delight man broke through the only prohibition laid on him. Tested under conscience, corruption and violence filled the earth, and the world had to be cleared by the deluge. Tested under the restraining influence of divinely appointed government, man went into idolatry, thus turning his back on his Creator. Tested under law, he cast off all restraint and crucified the Lord of glory. Tested under grace, in this present dispensation of the Holy Spirit, man has shown himself utterly unable to appreciate such mercy, has rejected the gospel, and has gone ever deeper into sin. Tested under the personal reign of the Lord Jesus Christ for a thousand years, some will be ready to listen to the voice of the tempter. For he will ascend from the pit of the abyss bent on one last defiant effort to thwart the purpose of God. It is a melancholy history indeed and emphasizes the truth that the heart of man is incurably evil. The carnal mind is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be (Rom 8:7); therefore the need, in all ages, of a second birth through the Word and the Spirit of God.

The apostle Peter wrote, The heavens and the earth which are now, are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment (2Pe 3:7). This pent-up fire breaking forth from the heavens will destroy the hosts of Satans dupes, and will purify the very globe itself, as once before it was cleansed by water. This closes the course of time and introduces the unending ages of eternity, during which the devil will be confined in the great prison-house of the lost who have resisted Gods mercy and spurned His grace. What an end for him who was once the anointed cherub that covered the throne of God, but whose heart was lifted up because of his beauty. Thus falling through pride, he became the most accursed creature in all the universe of God! Our Lord told us that the devil abode not in the truth (Joh 8:44). He is the prince of all apostates. Apostasy has ever been the great sin into which he has malignantly sought to lead the human race.

The Great White Throne (Rev 20:11-15)

The judgment of the great white throne is the final scene before the new heavens and the new earth are introduced. It is, as a careful study makes exceedingly clear, not the general judgment at the end of the world, as many have supposed. It is the judgment of the wicked who, during Christs reign of a thousand years, have been left in the realms of the dead. The righteous who share in heavenly glory are to be revealed, as we have seen, at the judgment seat of Christ. There they will be rewarded according to their service while in this world. The living nations will be summoned to appear before the Son of man when He comes in His glory at the beginning of the millennium (Matthew 25). The wicked dead are to be raised at the end of that reign of righteousness and dealt with according to their works. The condemnation now is that men reject the Lord Jesus Christ who has made full atonement for sin in order that all may be freed from wrath through Him. But if He is rejected finally, of very necessity men must face the penalty of sin themselves.

Solemn indeed is the description of that last great assize. The august throne-occupant, we know from other Scriptures, will be none other than our Lord Jesus Christ. The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: that all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father (Joh 5:22-23). He who once hung on Calvarys cross is to be the judge of living and dead. We have already been largely occupied with the first aspect of the judgment. Now it is the doom of the wicked dead that is engaging our attention.

When the throne is set, the heavens and the earth, as we now know them, shrink away, as though the material universe were awed by the face of Him who summons the dead to their accounting. What a sea of faces will appear before Him in that solemn hour of tremendous import! All the lost of all the ages; all who preferred their sins to His salvation; all who procrastinated until for them the door of mercy was closed; all who spurned His grace and in self-will chose the way that seemeth right unto a man but was in truth the way of death (Pro 14:12)-all such are to be summoned to stand before that inexorably righteous throne. No condoning of sin then; no palliating or excusing in that day. The judgment of God will be according to truth, and every circumstance will be taken into account. Nothing will be overlooked. Therefore some will be beaten with many stripes and some with few, according to the measure of light given and rejected. Shall not the judge of all the earth do right? (Gen 18:25) And there will be no appeal from His decisions, for His is the supreme court of the universe. What a magnificent conception, exclaims Thomas Carlyle, is that of a last judgment! A righting of all the wrongs of the ages. And, I may add, the tracing back of every evil act to its source, and the placing of responsibility for every offense against the moral law, where it belongs.

None will be great enough to escape that court session, none too insignificant to be overlooked. The dead, small and great, will be there. Even though their bodies had been buried for centuries, even millenniums in the depths of the sea, they will come forth at His bidding, who when He speaks will not be denied. Death, the grave which has claimed what was mortal of man, his body, will give up its prey. Hades, the world unseen, will surrender the undying spirits and souls of the lost. Man-body, soul, and spirit reunited-will stand trembling before that judgment bar. The books of record will be opened. Memory will respond to every charge. The Word of God too will be opened there, for Jesus declared that Moses words and His words should judge men in the last day. And the book of life too will be unfolded there. Many in that vast throng had taken it for granted their names were in that book because perhaps they had been listed on the roll of some church or religious society. Let them search and look. It will bear witness against them. The Lamb has not inscribed their name in that book. And whosoever was not found written in the book [will be] cast into the lake of fire (Rev 20:15).

Will any be saved who stand before the great white throne? Not one, if we read the account correctly, for death and hades are to be emptied into the lake of fire. All the lost, whose spirits and bodies they have held in confinement so long, will be emptied out into the pit of woe. And, says Gods Word, This is the second death (Rev 20:14). Death is the separation of body and spirit, we are told in Jam 2:26. The second death is the final separation of the lost from the God who created man. Like living planets which, possessed of will, have swung out of their orbits, they dash off into the outer darkness never to find their way back to that great central sun.

The lake of fire is the symbol of immeasurable sorrow, of eternal torment. It is a divine picture intended to make the soul of the sinner shrink with dread as he contemplates the end of those who obey not the gospel. It is human character made permanent, abiding in eternal sin and therefore under the wrath of God forever. Not until Judas Iscariot and John the beloved who wrote this book clasp hands in heavenly glory, will the woes of the wicked come to an end. As to Judas, the Master he betrayed has declared, good were it for that man if he had never been born (Mar 14:21). Were there salvation ahead at last, even after ages of suffering, as another has strikingly pointed out, even Judas might well thank God that he had ever been permitted to live. But over the portals of the lost is inscribed, Abandon hope, ye who enter here.

Now is the acceptable time. Now a gracious Savior waits to catch the first breathing of repentance and answers the feeblest cry of faith. Trifle not with His mercy, hope not for some vague second chance, but close with Christ now. Know for a certainty that you will have no part in the doom pronounced at the great white throne. For the Lord Himself has said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into [judgment]; but is passed from death unto life (Joh 5:24).

Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets

Rev 20:11

“And the Books were Opened.”.

What are the books to be read? We are not told their title, but I think we may make some conjecture.

I. The first book will be the book of the law of God. Just as in our courts of justice the laws of the realm are always near at hand, that in any doubtful case they may be appealed to, so, I think, the first book will be the book of the revealed will of the holy and just God, a record of the laws and measures by which men will be tried.

II. The next book will be the book of the Gospel. Side by side with the volume of the law will stand the volume of God’s love contained in the Gospel, the wondrous record of all that is done by God for man.

III. The third book will be the book of the dealings of God’s Holy Spirit with the fallen family of man. Some of us may have already lost sight of the striving of the Holy Spirit with us; but God does not forget it: God does not lose sight of it.

IV. The book of God’s providence will be opened. In it is kept, without any possibility of mistake, a record of all God’s dealings with us externally. God is ever seeking by His providential dealings to bring us to Him.

V. The book of our life will be opened. Every one of us is writing a book; we are every one of us authors, although we may never have written a book, not even a line, in our lives. Though we may never have dreamt of printing a book, yet we are dictating to the recording angel the whole of our life from moment to moment, from hour to hour.

VI. The book of life. Jesus Christ is the Author of it. From beginning to end it is His. From the first page to the end, it is life all through: life as it first entered the soul; life as it grew and was fed and nourished and sustained, and the glorious results of life, the glorious harvest reaped by the soul; life which triumphs over our dead selves, which brings the dry bones together out of the gloomy sepulchre-the book of life, written by the Lord of life, Jesus Christ Himself.

W. Hay Aitken, Penny Pulpit, New Series, No. 881.

Rev 20:12

Standing before God.

I. What is meant by standing before God? We are apt to picture to ourselves a great dramatic scene, host beyond host, rank behind rank, the millions who have lived upon the earth, all standing crowded together in the indescribable presence of One who looks not merely at the mass, but at the individual, and sees through the whole life and character of every single soul. The picture is sublime, and it is what the words of St. John are intended to suggest. But we must get behind the picture to its meaning. The picture must describe not one scene only, but the whole nature and condition of the everlasting life. The souls of men in the eternal world are always “standing before God.” And what does that mean? We understand at once if we consider that that before which a man stands is the standard, or test, or source of judgment for his life. Every soul that counts itself capable of judgment and responsibility stands in some presence by which the nature of its judgment is decreed. The higher the presence, the loftier and greater, though often the more oppressed and anxious, is the life. A weak man, who wants to shirk the seriousness and anxiety of life, goes down into some lower chamber and stands before some baser judge, whose standard will be less exacting. A strong, ambitious man presses up from judgment-room to judgment-room, and is not satisfied with meeting any standard perfectly so long as there is any higher standard which he has not faced.

II. The dead, small and great, St. John says that he saw standing before God. In that great judgment-day another truth is that the difference of sizes among human lives, of which we make so much, passes away, and all human beings, in simple virtue of their human quality, are called to face the everlasting righteousness. The child and the greybeard, the scholar and the boor, however their lives may have been separated here, they come together there. It is upon the moral ground that the most separated souls must always meet. All may be good: all may be bad; therefore before Him whose nature is the decisive touchstone of goodness and badness in every nature which is laid before it all souls of all the generations of mankind may be assembled. The only place where all can meet, and every soul claim its relationship with every other soul, is before the throne of God. The Father’s presence alone furnishes the meeting-place for all the children, regardless of differences of age or wisdom.

III. Another thought which is suggested by St. John’s verse is the easy comprehension of the finite by the infinite. All the dead of all the generations stand before God together. But there is no finite, however vast, that can overcrowd the infinite, none that the infinite cannot most easily grasp and hold. St. John says that he saw all the hosts of the dead stand before God. We, too, must see them stand before God, and they will not oppress us. Be sure that if you will begin, not by counting the multitude of the dead and asking yourself how any celestial meadow where you can picture them assembled can hold them all, but by lifting yourself up and laying hold on the infinity of God, you will find range enough in Him for all the marvellous conception of the immortality of all men. Every thought of man depends on what you first think of God.

Phillips Brooks, Twenty Sermons, p. 60.

Rev 20:12

The Secret Justice of Temporal Providence.

I. The great characteristic of future judgment is that it is open judgment: it declares itself. It does not leave the subject of punishment uncertain, so that a man does not know what he is punished for. All is open and plain dealing. We are told the reason of everything. We naturally connect a future judgment with a revelation of sin. It would seem to be a kind of Magna Charta of the next world that nothing shall be done without making known the grounds on which it is done. It is a transparent world; justice is a public justice, and proclaims its sentence upon the housetops. The whole congregation of God’s creatures is made a witness to it, confirms and ratifies the great work of Divine reward and punishment, and stamps the impress of conscience upon it.

II. But, with respect to the justice of this world as conducted under God’s providence, we must make very large deductions from this openness. Whatever may be said about the merit of it, and how much good it does, one thing is to be observed: it is not an open justice, like that in the courts of heaven; its characteristic is rather closeness. A great deal is done, and carefully done, by it in the world, and it may be said to achieve many most important ends here, and ends which the Divine government has in view, but it does not declare itself; it punishes largely, and says nothing. You cannot trace the links by which the disadvantages under which you suffer are connected with your faults; but the connection may be closer than you are aware. You complain that there is a falling short from what might have been expected. You struggle on, but there is an absence of advantages. The sun does not shine upon you. It is so, but how do you know to what extent you may yourself have cut off the sunshine?

III. We do not know what this or that particular penalty has been due to, this or that unkind, or ungracious, or selfish act, but we do know generally the kind of faults we are prone to and the risk we run through them. We know, or may know perfectly well if we please, that these evil habits or qualities tend to alienate good men from us. We must be always on our guard, and, so far as this world is governed upon moral principles and upon principles of justice, we must walk in caution and in fear.

IV. The invisible court of our fellow-creatures, which sits behind men’s backs, and issues negative punishments, is a true part of providential justice. The will of society upon its members is executed, and that will embodies much which is just and in the true interests of the community. But when we compare the inevitable meanness of the justice of the world and of society, its privacy, its cunning, its closeness, and those tendencies to a low type which are a part of the very system of things-when we compare these with the open court of heaven, the scene to which we turn rises before us as one full of majesty. Here we live amid the privacies and secret management of earthly justice; there we see the type and ideal of justice, for there God is Judge Himself.

J. B. Mozley, Sermons Parochial and Occasional, p. 337.

Rev 20:12

The Last Assize.

Consider:-

I. He who is to decide our portion for eternity is the very Being who died as our Surety. Who but man can fully sympathise with man? And yet if an angel be not qualified to sit in judgment, how can a man be? A man may have the power of sympathy, which an angel has not; but then he is far inferior to the angels in those other properties which are required, and in some of those properties even angels are altogether deficient. So that, if we would determine who alone seems fitted to bear the office of judge of this creation, we appear to require the insupposable combination-insupposable, we mean, so long as you shut us out from the Gospel-the omniscience of the Deity and the feelings of humanity. We cannot dispense with the omniscience of Deity; we see clearly enough that no finite intelligence can be adequate to that decision which will ensure the thorough justice of future retribution. But then neither can we dispense with the feelings of humanity; at least, we can have no confidence in approaching His tribunal, if we are sure that the difference in nature incapacitates Him from sympathy with those whose sentence He is about to pronounce, and precludes the possibility of His so making our case His own, as to allow of His deciding with due allowance for our feebleness and temptations. And here revelation comes in, and sets before us a Judge in whose person is centred that amazing combination which we have just pronounced as insupposable. This Man, by whom God hath ordained that “He will judge the world in righteousness,” is Himself Divine, “the Word which was in the beginning with God, and which was God,” He shall come in human form, “and every eye shall see Him,” “bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh”; and they who pierced Him shall look upon Him, and recognise through all His majesty the “Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” It is thus we are assured that mercy and justice will alike have full scope in the transactions of the judgment, and that in appointing that the Mediator who died as our Substitute will preside at our trial God hath equally provided that every decision shall be impartial, and yet every man be dealt with as brother to Him who must determine our fate. It is one of the most beautiful of the arrangements of redemption that the offices of Redeemer and Judge meet in the same Person, and that Person Divine. We call it a beautiful arrangement, as securing towards us tenderness as well as equity, the sympathy of a Friend as well as the disinterestedness of a righteous Arbiter. Had the Judge been only man, the imperfection of His nature would have led us to expect much of error in His verdicts; had He been only God, the distance between Him and ourselves would have made us fear that in determining our lots He would not have taken into account our feebleness and trials.

II. Note the thorough righteousness of the whole procedure of the judgment: “The dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.” Though no man can be saved by his works, every man shall be judged according to his works. If he have believed on Christ (and this is the single appointed mode of salvation), the sincerity of his faith will be proved by his works; and therefore, in being awarded everlasting life, he will be “judged according to his works.” If he have not relied on the merits of his Saviour, the want of faith will be evidenced by the deficiency of his works; and therefore will he also as to everlasting misery be judged according to his works. And over and above this general decision, “according to his works,” we believe that every particular of conduct will have something corresponding to it in the final retribution. Indeed, the brief description that the judgment will be “in righteousness” comprehends all that can well be advanced on this topic-righteousness, so that nothing shall escape the Judge, and nothing impose on the Judge, and nothing embarrass the Judge. If found in Christ, there is no adversary that can accuse us, if not members of the Mediator, no power that can absolve.

H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 2032.

Reference: Rev 20:12.-Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vii., p. 97.

Fuente: The Sermon Bible

Chapter 47

Christs dominion over the prince of darkness

‘And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years’

Rev 20:1-3

The book of Revelation gives us seven visions of the Person and work of Christ in this gospel age. In these seven visions the Lord revealed to John what he had done, is doing, and shall hereafter do for his church, in his church, and with his church. The whole purpose of the Book is to assure Gods children in this world of their ultimate conquest over the world, the flesh, and the devil. This blessed book is ‘The Revelation of Jesus Christ.’ By revealing to us who he is and what he does, our Lord calls for us to ever look unto him with confident faith, and assures us that we are ‘More than conquerors through him that loved us.’ The seven visions which John saw and recorded by Divine Inspiration are set before us in consecutive order in the twenty-two chapters of this book. He saw…

1. Christ in the midst of his churches, the seven golden candlesticks, in this world (chpts. 1-3).

2. Christ opening and fulfilling the seven sealed book of Gods sovereign, eternal purpose (chpts. 4-7).

3.Christ answering the prayers of his people, protecting them from their enemies, and vindicating them by executing the seven trumpets of judgment in his providential rule of the universe (chpts. 8-11).

4. Christ and his church persecuted by satan, world government, and false religion (chpts. 12-14).

5. Christ sending his angels to pour out the seven vials of his wrath upon the earth (chpts. 15-16).

6. Christs conquest over Babylon, the beast, and the false prophet (chpts. 17-19).

7. Christs dominion over and destruction of satan and the glory of the New Jerusalem (chpts. 20-22).

These seven visions each cover the whole gospel age from the first to the second coming of Christ. They do not represent different ages, dispensations, or prophetic events. They all tell the same story. They all tell us what our Lord has done, is doing, and shall do for the salvation of his people. The use of the word ‘seven’ is striking. There are ‘seven golden candlesticks,’ ‘seven stars,’ ‘seven seals,’ ‘seven trumpets,’ ‘seven angels,’ ‘seven vials.’ Seven is the number of perfection, completion, and satisfaction. And in each of these seven visions, the Holy Spirit assures us of the perfect rule of Christ as the Monarch of the universe for the complete victory and eternal salvation of his church. In Revelation 20, the final vision begins. Chapter 19 brought us to the very end of world history, to the final day of judgment. In chapter 20 we return to the beginning of the gospel age once again. In this vision we see once more the accomplishments of Christs first advent; and we are carried through to the final conquests of his second advent. Rev 20:1-3 reveals the binding of satan which was accomplished by the work of Christ in his first advent. The sequence of events is clear:

1. Our Lords first advent is followed by a long period of time, represented by a ‘thousand years,’ in which satan is bound.

2. At the close of this gospel age satan is loosed for ‘a little season.’

3. And the loosing of satan is followed by Christs glorious second advent to judge the world and make all things new.

It should be clear to anyone who reads Revelation 20 that the language is figurative, as it is in all the pictures we have seen. ‘The thousand years’ is no more a literal period of time than ‘the great chain’ is a literal chain. As ‘the chain’ represents restraining power, ‘the thousand years’ represents a long period of time – that whole span of time between Christs first and second coming. It is also obvious that ‘the thousand years’ precede (they do not follow) the second coming of Christ. In other words, we are now living in this ‘thousand year’ period which began with the incarnation of Christ. This ‘thousand years’ is this present gospel age. It does not begin at Christs second coming. It ends at his second coming (See Rev 20:11.). Our Lord Jesus Christ has so thoroughly bound the prince of darkness that he has total dominion over him (Read Rev 20:1-3.).

We see the purpose of our Lords incarnation (Rev 20:1)

This great and mighty Angel, which John saw come down from heaven, is the Lord Jesus Christ himself, the Angel of the covenant, the Angel of Gods presence (Rev 10:1-7; Rev 18:1). He alone has the keys of death and hell (Rev 1:18). No creature could ever bind the devil, or even hinder his influence. He was the greatest, most powerful creature of the Almighty. None but Christ, the Creator, could bind him. We know that the primary purpose of our Lords incarnation was the redemption and salvation of Gods elect by the merits of his blood and the power of his grace (Mat 1:21; 1Ti 1:15). But in order to accomplish our salvation satan had to be bound. And here we see Christ coming with the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He is coming to shackle a treasonous rebel and lock him away! The Scriptures plainly tell us that one purpose of our Lords incarnation and birth was to make war with, conquer, and bind the prince of darkness (Gen 3:15; 1Jn 3:8; Rev 12:5-11).

The character of our great enemy is revealed in four names (Rev 20:2)

Satan is too wise, too crafty, too strong, and too cunning for any of us to resist him, overcome him, or avoid his blinding delusions. And this great rebel against God is full of enmity, anger, wrath, and malice toward the souls of men. He knows that by the merits of Christ and in union with Christ, we shall have the place he desired. We shall sit with Christ upon the very throne of God and judge the world (Rev 3:21; 1Co 6:2). Satans hatred for Gods elect is fueled by envy and jealousy. Let us ever beware of this great enemy.

He is called ‘The Dragon.’

He is a beast of ferocious power in the earth. He is the instigator of all rebellion and opposition to God, holding power over the minds of men, taking them captive at his will. The governors, kings, and rulers of the earth are his willing subjects, by whom he breathes out the fires of persecution upon Gods saints. Since the days of Nimrod, he has led the confederated kings of the earth against the Lord and his Christ. And he will continue to do so, as God permits, until the time of Armageddon.

He is called ‘The Old Serpent’

He is old, very old. He has been around since the beginning of history. And he is the serpent. He is best represented by the slithering, crooked, deceiving serpent, with his subtle, hidden poison and deadly malignity. It was the serpent who deceived our first parents and seduced them into sin and death. It is the serpent who today deceives the souls of men and women. with presumptuous pride, false doctrine, perverted wisdom, and unbelief. And it is the serpent who corrupts, divides, and seeks to destroy the church of God

He is called ‘The Devil’

The word ‘devil’ means ‘slanderer, liar.’ This has been his character throughout history. ‘He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth; when he speaketh a lie, he speaketh his own; for he is a liar, and the father of it’ (Joh 8:44). He slanders God to man (Gen 3:1-5). ‘Yea, hath God said.’ And he slanders man to God (Job 1:9-11). The devil twists and perverts all: Gods Word, his providence, his gospel, and his grace!

He is called ‘Satan’

The word ‘satan’ means ‘accuser.’ He is one who waits to entrap, to oppose, to disable, to bring disaster, and to destroy. He is a ready, vicious, unrelenting adversary. He opposed God in the beginning. He opposed Christ upon the earth. And he opposes Gods elect from the cradle to the grave. Child of God, this is the character of your souls great enemy. He is a powerful dragon, a subtle serpent, a deceiving slanderer, and a bitter, relentless adversary. But our Savior is mightier than our adversary! Satan is too great for us. But he is not too great for our Christ.

The binding of satan by Christ is described in (Rev 20:2-3)

John saw the Lord Jesus come down from heaven with a key to lock the bottomless pit and a chain to bind the devil (Rev 9:1; Rev 9:11; Rev 11:7). This bottomless pit has a lid upon it that can be locked and sealed. Remember, this is only a picture, a figurative symbol, nothing more. But it tells us of the work of Christ. He laid hold upon satan, overpowered him, rendered him helpless, and bound him securely with the mighty chain of his sovereign power. He cast him into the bottomless pit, locked the lid, and sealed it for a thousand years, more literally, ‘for the thousands of years.’ What does this mean? how did this binding of satan take place? You will remember that when our Lord Jesus began his public ministry, the Pharisees accused him of casting out demons by the power of satan. His answer was, ‘How can one enter into a strong mans house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? And then he will spoil his house’ (Mat 12:29). That word, ‘bind’ is exactly the same in Mat 12:29 and in Revelation 20. And it is talking about the same thing.

The binding of satan began when our Lord triumphed over him in the wilderness of temptation (Mat 4:1-11; Luk 4:1-13)

When satan met Christ Jesus in the wilderness, he was foiled by the Word of God. As a result of this triumph, our Lord, having bound the strong man, began to spoil his goods, casting out demons. ‘The power and influence of satan over the deluded masses was beginning to be curtailed’ (William Hendriksen).

In the garden of Gethsemane our Lord Jesus again broke the power of satan by faith and prayer (Mat 26:36-46)

In that dark, cold night, satan came to oppose our dear Savior, taunting him with the hideous load of sin that must be put upon him, tormenting him with the anticipation of being made sin, being made to suffer the wrath of God, and being forsaken by the Father. He was trying to keep the Lord from the cross. And our Saviors tender, holy, human soul was crushed with sorrow. But he rose in triumph after he prayed (Heb 5:7-9). In confident faith, he rose up to lay down his life for his sheep (Heb 12:1-2).

Then, our great Savior, crushed the serpents head, bound him as a wild beast, and cast him into the bottomless pit, by his glorious, triumphant death upon the cross (Joh 12:28-32)

By his death upon the cursed tree, our Lord broke the arms of satans usurped dominion over the nations of the world, and began to draw all men unto himself, Gentiles as well as Jews. The light was taken from the Jews who despised it, and sent to the Gentiles who never had it, that Gods elect in every nation might see the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ and be saved.

When our Savior ascended up to heaven and was exalted as King over all things, he brought satan into captivity under his sovereign rule (Psa 68:18-19; Col 2:13-15; Rev 12:5-11)

The Son of God has always ruled satan, as he has ruled all things, by virtue of his total sovereignty as God. But now, he has, as the God-man, our Mediator, taken away satans power to deceive the world so that he might gather his elect out of every nation in the world. Every text of Scripture which speaks of the binding and captivity of satan refers to and is associated with our Lords first advent, his life, his death, and his exaltation. This is a glorious, comforting gospel truth which few people seem to apprehend. We are not awaiting the day when satan shall be bound and Christ shall be King. Jesus Christ is the sovereign King over al things today! And satan is bound already!

Our great adversary is under the total rule and control of our dear Savior

He cannot harm us! His temptations are under the rule of Christ! His assaults are under the rule of Christ! Even his roars are under the rule of Christ! This binding of satan is not his destruction. That comes later, at the day of judgment.

This binding of satan is specifically the destruction of his power, or the restraint of his power to deceive the nations

Satans influence in the world is not destroyed, but curtailed, so that he is unable to prevent the spread of the gospel, the salvation of Gods elect and the progress of Christs kingdom in the nations of the world. Satan cannot prevent, or withstand, the increase and completion of Christs church in this world (Mat 16:18).

Satan is also bound today by the power of Christ, through the preaching of the gospel (Luk 10:16-20)

As we preach the gospel of the grace of God, when it is effectually applied to the hearts of men and women by the Holy Spirit, satan is bound and his house is spoiled! NOTE: I do not say, by any means, that satan is bound with reference to all men. But, in so far as Gods elect are concerned, satan is bound everywhere. He cannot stop the progress of the gospel until the thousand years are finished, until the church of Christ is complete, and all Gods elect are saved. But then he must be loosed for ‘a little season.’

There will be a little season of great deception at the close of this present gospel age (Rev 20:3)

John tells us that satan ‘must be loosed a little season.’ The Lord Jesus will once again allow satan freedom to deceive the nations of the world, because they would not believe the gospel, nor receive the love of the truth (2Th 2:1-12). In that little season, there will be a famine of the Word of God (Amo 8:11-13). In that little season, the world will be zealously religious, but utterly ignorant of the true and living God, deceived with false religion (2Th 2:1-12; Rev 16:12-14). But Gods elect shall not be deceived (2Th 2:13-14). His people are safe. They shall not be moved away from the hope of the gospel (1Jn 2:20-29). Child of God, rejoice! Satan is bound for you! He cannot harm you. He cannot accuse you before God. He cannot bring you into condemnation. He cannot prevent the success of Christ and his kingdom! Soon, God will bruise satan under your feet (Rom 16:20; Rev 12:11-12).

Fuente: Discovering Christ In Selected Books of the Bible

I saw: Rev 10:1, Rev 18:1

having: Rev 1:18, Rev 9:1, Rev 9:2, Luk 8:31

a great: 2Pe 2:4, Jud 1:6

Reciprocal: Gen 3:15 – it shall Job 2:6 – save Job 21:22 – he judgeth Job 33:28 – will deliver Psa 68:20 – unto Psa 72:11 – all nations Psa 91:13 – the dragon Isa 35:9 – No lion Isa 59:19 – the Spirit Isa 63:3 – and of the people Dan 7:9 – till Zec 9:8 – no Zec 13:2 – unclean Mat 8:31 – General Mat 12:29 – General Mat 16:19 – the keys Mat 22:44 – till Mar 3:27 – General Mar 4:31 – is less than Mar 5:7 – that Luk 8:28 – I beseech Luk 11:22 – General Act 2:35 – thy foes Rom 16:20 – shall Rev 11:17 – thou hast Rev 16:17 – into Rev 20:3 – cast

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

IT IS REMARKABLE that while our Lord will deal personally with men, it is an angel, a spirit being, who will deal with the great spirit being, who is the originator of all the evil. He is described in a fourfold way so as to identify him without a doubt. As Satan he is the adversary. As the devil he is the accuser. He is the old serpent of the opening book of the Bible, and the dragon of the closing book. All through the ages his aim has been to deceive the nations, as Rev 20:3 shows us. How effectively he has done so all history bears witness, and coming days will show even more disastrously.

His activities will reach their climax in provoking this climax of human corruption and violence, but only to fail ignominiously before the might of the Lord. He is to find himself bound and a prisoner in the abyss for a thousand years. The great chain necessary to bind him is in the angels hand-symbolic language again, for no literal chain could bind a spirit being. The bottomless pit is not the lake of fire but the dungeon in which he is confined while the millennial age runs its course. The seal of God is put upon him there by the angels hand. It was an angel who broke the seal which men put on the sepulchre of the Lord Jesus.

The author of all the evil being dealt with, John turns to contemplate those who are blessed in association with Christ. Three distinct groups are mentioned. First comes those who are enthroned and to whom judgment is given. Daniel the prophet foresaw this great day, as he records in his seventh chapter. When the Ancient of days did sit, then the thrones were cast down, or set. But there is no mention of any who sat on them. In our passage the enthroned ones appear and are described by the simple pronoun they. To whom does the pronoun apply? Where is the noun? We answer unhesitatingly it applies to the armies in heaven, of the previous chapter, which were composed of much people in heaven, covering both the wife of the Lamb-the Church-and those called to the marriage supper-the Old Testament saints.

The pronoun they covers, then, the saints who were raised and changed at the rapture, as to whom Paul asked the Corinthians, Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? But another and much smaller class follows. There were those who, subsequent to the removal of the church, had suffered death for the testimony of Jesus and the word of God. Again, there were those who were martyred under the beast because they would not receive his mark. We have read of these two groups before. The former in Rev 6:9-11; the latter in Rev 13:15. Both are now seen as living and reigning with Christ in the day of His glory.

Verse Rev 20:4 indicates, then, that all the saints who suffer death between the coming of the Lord for His saints and His coming with them will be raised when He does come in His glory. In that risen life they will reign with Him, while those who did receive the mark of the beast and worship him will suffer the dreadful penalties described in Rev 14:9-11.

There is a sharp line of demarcation between verses Rev 20:4-5. The one gives us the saints in risen life and power. The other speaks of the rest of the dead, who remain in their graves during the thousand years. Then, referring back again to verse Rev 20:4, comes the remark, This is the first resurrection. This is corroboration of the fact that the they, at the opening of verse Rev 20:4, indicated the saints raised, as prophesied in 1Th 4:15-17. It also establishes quite clearly that the resurrection of life and the resurrection of damnation (Joh 5:29), are separated by a thousand years.

Verse Rev 20:6 also makes it abundantly clear that only those who are blessed and holy have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, though it has over those who are left for the second resurrection. Their blessedness is described in a twofold way. It is not that they enter into things entirely new in their character, for even now Christ has made us kings and priests unto God and His Father (Rev 1:6), and in Rev 5:1-14 the twenty-four elders were presented in those characters. Here, however, what the saints have been made, and which is known now to our faith, comes into full display in the millennial age.

Still, there is one new feature here. They are priests… of Christ; it is really of the Christ. Nowhere else does this expression occur, and it reminds us of Aaron and his sons in Exo 29:1-46, who, when together, typified the saints as a priestly company. The sons of Aaron were priests of God and of Aaron-if we may so say. The risen saints will be manifested as priests of God and of the Christ, as taking their character and place entirely from Him. And they will share in His kingly reign.

Verse Rev 20:6 gives us in brief summary the power and blessedness of the millennial age on its heavenly side. More instruction is granted us when we come to the latter part of Rev 21:1-27, but still it is as to the heavenly side of it, just mentioning the nations of them that are saved, and the kings of the earth, but giving us no details as to the earthly blessings enjoyed in that delightful age. Such details were not needed here as they had been fully given in Old Testament scripture.

We know that the earth will rejoice and prosper under the benificent reign of Christ; that it will be full of the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea. Let Psa 72:1-20 be considered for there we see Christ as the priestly King, absolute in His rule-but sustaining the poor and needy. In Revelation we are let into the secret of how He will dispense His power and goodness through His heavenly saints-even such as ourselves.

Do we really believe it? If we do it will take the shine out of the present age through which we pass, and out of all its achievements.

The Millennial age will be characterized by righteous yet beneficent rule. At the end of the ages of sinful misrule by men, with all their attendant miseries, there is to be displayed the excellence and glory of Divine rule, under Christ as Son of Man and King of Israel. Yet sin will not be entirely absent, as Isa 65:20 shows.

Moreover, during the thousand years human life on earth will continue as at present and multitudes will be born as the years pass, and the Lords words, That which is born of the flesh is flesh, will be as true then as now. If a work of grace does not take place in the hearts of such, all the old fleshly tendencies will be there, repressed only by Divine rule from without; Satan, the instigator of evil, not being there to work upon them. This accounts for the solemn facts of verse Rev 20:8, which otherwise might seem inexplicable.

At the end of the millennium Satan is to be released from his prison and allowed to work his will. He has learned nothing and received no correction. He is absolutely unchanged. Out he goes at once, again to deceive the nations. Men of Adams race, apart from the new birth, are unchanged also, in spite of having lived for centuries under a regime of absolute righteousness. In the Gospel we have learned that, the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God (Rom 8:7, Rom 8:8). Hence nothing but a new birth will do. This will again be shown in striking fashion at the close of the millennium. Men in the flesh cannot please God, and God and His righteous rule does not please them. So at the first opportunity, when instigated, they rebel.

Out of all nations the rebels come, though Gog and Magog are specially designated. Eze 38:1-23 and Eze 39:1-29 predict the destruction of this great northern power as the millennial age begins-the last stroke, it would appear, of the great Armageddon conflict. A thousand years have passed, but again we find the representatives of that power taking a leading part in the anti-God movement. The great Russian territories are pretty clearly indicated in the chapters in Ezekiel, and even in our day the anti-God spirit seems to have come to a head there. Their objective is the camp of the saints and the beloved city, in the centre of which will stand the Temple of God, whence will proceed both the authority and the blessing of the millennial age. It is unadulterated rebellion against God. It merits condign punishment, and it gets it.

Fire from heaven devours them, and this dreadful episode brings to a close the millennial age and all the ages of time, so that we stand on the threshold of the eternal state. Our chapter goes on to relate Gods acts in the judgment of sin, both governmental and eternal. There is no mention of what happens to the material earth (save that earth and the heaven fled away), until the first verse of the next chapter is reached, and then we are only told that the first heaven and earth have passed away. We have to refer to 2Pe 3:7, 2Pe 3:10, for more precise details, and then we discover that fire is to be the agent used for that. So it may very well be that this falling of fire from heaven to devour the rebels is also the act of God which releases the atomic forces which will produce what Peter predicts.

The last six verses of our chapter give us the results of Gods last judgments; not the material side of them but the moral and spiritual. The fountain-head of all evil is first dealt with. In all the wide universe, that the Scriptures reveal to us, Satan was the original rebel. Into this world he introduced sin by way of deceit. His name, devil, means accuser, calumniator, and by his calumnies against God and His word he deceived Eve, as Gen 3:1-24 bears witness. As a mighty spiritual being, possessing powers of intelligence vastly beyond anything human, he has no difficulty in deceiving fallen men. He is doing it today, and will do it to the end. But the limit determined by Omnipotence is now reached, and he is cast into that everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels, of which the Lord spoke in Mat 25:41. Here the fire is spoken of as a lake, which gives the idea of a place circumscribed and confined. Into it the beast and the false prophet were cast as the millennial age began, and now at the end of that age we read that there they still are, and not that they were. The fire had not destroyed them.

We are well acquainted with fire and its effects in material objects; but, as far as we know, it has no effects on spiritual beings. We judge therefore the phrase to be symbolic, as so much else in this book, but it stands as the symbol of the hot displeasure, the scorching judgment of God, which even for the devil will mean that he shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

The originator of sin and his two chief lieutenants being disposed of, the great mass of sinful mankind, who have fallen a prey to his deceits, now appear at the final assize. The language is deeply solemn and impressive. John sees the throne of judgment, which he describes as great and white. The second resurrection, that of damnation, has taken place, and the earth has fled away. This earth is but a tiny spot in Gods great universe and all the limitations which it would impose upon this scene are gone. In result, the dead, small and great, stand before God. They have been raised and reclothed in bodies, as verse Rev 20:13 clearly indicates, but they are still the dead in a spiritual sense-dead towards God.

The One who will sit on that throne, from whose face the very earth and heaven will flee, inasmuch as they have been defiled by sin, must be our Lord Jesus Christ, since, the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son (Joh 5:22). His face was once marred more than that of any man. In it now there shines the glory of God. Then it will be characterized by the penetrating understanding of omniscience, and the severity of a judgment which springs from righteousness and holiness, of which the whiteness of the throne is a symbol.

Yet the judgment will not be apart from the divine records, nor apart from their works. It will be based not on what God knew them to be but on what they had manifested themselves to be in their outward actions. Of those actions a record had been kept before God. It is remarkable that the Old Testament as it closes should speak of a book of remembrance written before the Lord in favour of the godly: the New Testament at the close speaking of the things written in the books, on which the ungodly are condemned. In recent years men have discovered how to record human speech and actions in such a way as to preserve them for future generations. What they are learning to do imperfectly God has done in perfection through the ages. A terrifying thought for the sinful sons of men!

About three-quarters of the earths surface is sea. If any of the dead could be overlooked in that hour, it would be some who found their burial in its wide expanse and its immense depths. But the sea will give them up. Death is viewed as having held mens bodies and hell or hades, had held their souls. Both yield up their prey that soul and body may be reunited. They had sinned in their bodies, and in their bodies they will be condemned. Again it is emphasized- every man according to their works.

At that time death and hades will contain only the unsaved, so that verse Rev 20:14 records the solemn fact that all that they contain will find their place in the lake of fire, and thus death and hell will disappear. Neither of these two were marked by finality: each was a provisional arrangement, and now they come to an end. Verse Rev 20:15 states the same terrible fact in another way. If the record of the books condemned men in a positive way, the book of life did so in a negative way. If their names were not there, it sealed their doom.

Fuente: F. B. Hole’s Old and New Testaments Commentary

The First and Last Resurrections

Rev 20:1-15

INTRODUCTORY WORDS

Perhaps we had better take up briefly the various judgments as preparatory for the study of the first and last resurrections. These resurrections are indissolubly linked to two judgments.

1. The judgment of the believers in life. Heb 12:1-29 tells us: “Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth,” Again it says, “And scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.” We have had fathers in the flesh who chastened us for our good: shall we not expect our Heavenly Father to chasten us?

In all of this judgment during life, we should remember that God is dealing with us as sons; that He is chastening us in order to child-train us; therefore, while no chastening for the present time seemeth joyous, it finally works out for us the peaceable fruits of righteousness, when we are exercised thereby.

2. The judgment of believers at the Judgment seat of Christ. This will be after the resurrection, for we are to receive for the things which we have done in the body whether good or bad. This judgment has to do with our lives after we are saved. It covers the record of our works, our fidelity to the faith once delivered, and our daily walk.

The judgment of works has nothing to do with our past lives when we reveled in all unrighteousness. When we accepted Christ, our sins were placed under the Blood, and they are not on us. There is now therefore no judgment to those who are in Christ Jesus,

3. The judgment of the wicked dead. This will be discussed in this chapter later, so we will mention it only briefly. Some have thought that the wicked will merely be judged as sinners, and have the same judgment, even that of being cast into the lake of fire. True, all sinners will be cast into the lake of fire; however, in addition to that, every unsaved man will be judged for his works.

4. The judgment of the nations. When Christ comes down to the earth riding on the white horse, He will slay the antichrist and the false prophet with the breath of His lips, and with the brightness of His Coming. However, the armies of the nations, as representatives of their nations, will be gathered into the valley of Jehoshaphat and judged as to whether they fought with or against His chosen people.

The result of the judgment of nations will be that the ones who lined up with antichrist, as against the Jews, will be slain. The other nations will enter into the Millennial Kingdom, with the Lord Jesus as their King and Lord.

5. The judgment of the inhabited earth. Our Lord will judge the earth in righteousness. He will execute judgment in the land. He will hear the prayer of the poor, and of the oppressed; He will know all things, and can, therefore, rightly judge with equity.

I. SATAN MEETS HIS FINAL DOOM (Rev 20:1-3)

1. The ancient history of Satan is unique. It begins away back somewhere before Adam was created. At that time Satan was created perfect in beauty and in wisdom, and with mighty power vested in his hands. His fall is recorded in the Word like this: “How art thou fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!” These words may refer to Satan’s final overthrow which we are now considering; however they also go back to that time when “Thou hast said in. thine heart, I will ascend into Heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: * * I will be like the Most High.”

2. The record of Satan during man’s life on the earth. Of this the Bible gives us many an accurate statement. He entered the Garden of Eden and led Eve, and then Adam, by his subtleties, into his snare. He entered into Cain, and became a murderer from the beginning of man’s history. He inveigled the whole world into corruption by the time of the Flood. He wrought against Abraham and the Patriarchs, then against David and the kingly line, seeking to make impossible the birth of the Seed, even Jesus Christ.

During the earth life of the Lord he sought to kill Him, and to undo all that God had sent Christ to accomplish. When the Church was born, Satan began a systematic attack against the saints, which continues unto this day. Daring the period following the rapture of the Church Satan will invent a devilish trinity: the antichrist, the false prophet, and himself, and put on his final and greatest strategy against God and men.

3. Satan’s chaining and casting down. In our opening verses of chapter 20 we read, “And I saw an angel come down from Heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years.”

Then the angel cast him down into the pit of the abyss, and shut him up for a thousand years. During the last thousand years of man’s sojourn upon this earth as it now stands, and during the simultaneous time of the reign of Christ among men, Satan will be bound and man will be free from his ravages and subtleties. Amen!

II. THE RESURRECTION OF TRIBULATION MARTYRS (Rev 20:4)

1. The designation of those who were raised. To place the raised ones of our verse is not difficult, for the language is plain: Here it is:

(1) Those that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus. This is a start, at least. All of the raised ones are martyrs. There have been many martyrs during the ages, and there are martyrs at this very hour, who are giving their blood for Christ. The martyrs now before us, however, have a time placing, as we will observe in a moment. They died as witnesses for Christ and for His Word.

(2) Those who worshiped not the beast, nor his image, neither did they receive his mark on their foreheads. Now we can place the martyrs definitely, for the beast and his image and his mark belong only to that period known as the Great Tribulation which covers the reign of the antichrist.

2. The reward of the martyred ones.

(1) They lived and they reigned with Christ a thousand years. They are in the line of the eleventh-hour laborers who went out to work for the Lord. They were not in the Rapture. However, they came to Christ afterward, and they too reign with Christ.

(2) On them the second death has no power. They died as martyrs, and paid for their new faith by their blood; they were, therefore, untouched by the second death. The other world inhabitants, who saved their lives from martyrdom by wearing the mark and number of the beast, will taste of the second death,

(3) They shall be priests of God and of Christ. Thank God that they too are given such riches of grace and glory. Their ministry for the One who saved them was limited on earth, but they shall minister to Him after their resurrection, in His Kingdom.

III. THE SECOND RESURRECTION (Rev 20:5-6)

1. There is one thousand years between the First and Second Resurrections. Mark these words: “They lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.”

The words above clearly settle the fact of two resurrections. This is, however, the message of more than one portion of Scripture.

The great resurrection chapter, 1Co 15:1-58, speaking of the resurrection, says, “But every man in his own order: Christ the Firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at His Coming, Then cometh the end”; etc.

We read of “the resurrection of the just,” without any reference to the wicked dead being raised at that time. We read in 1Th 4:13-18 of the Lord coming with a shout, and of the resurrection of the righteous, and Rapture of the living saints with them, etc., without one word of a simultaneous resurrection of the wicked.

2. The first resurrection set forth. Some one will ask, “If the resurrection of the martyrs slain during the seven years of Tribulation is the first resurrection, what about the resurrection of those in 1Th 4:13-18? Shall we not place them in with the resurrection in Rev 20:4?”

That cannot be done, because in Rev 20:4, only the martyred dead appear; only those who worshiped not the beast, etc. What then?

The Spirit is discussing the first resurrection in 1Co 15:1-58 when He says, “Christ the Firstfruits, afterward they that are Christ’s at His Coming.” As we see it the first resurrection, therefore, has two phases, and includes those who are raised and caught up, as set forth in First Thessalonians; however, the resurrection is not completed until the martyrs who are slain, afterward, are raised. With the martyrs raised, the first resurrection is completed; and the rest of the dead are not raised until after the thousand years are expired.

IV. SATAN TURNED LOOSE (Rev 20:7-10)

1. God’s best age among men still leaves many men sinners. Think of the privileges of the Kingdom! There are, in Christ’s Kingdom, so many things which will be conducive to faith and holiness. Let us suggest some of these things:

(1) The devil bound and in the pit of the abyss. This alone should make for righteousness. Some people, however, forget that there arc other tempters besides Satan, “But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.”

(2) The presence of the Lord Jesus, Himself, among men; manifesting both His grace and glory, and ruling in righteousness and truth. That should be enough, it seems, to cultivate and make easy an unwavering and indomitable faith.

(3) No wild beasts to fear, no dire poverty, but every physical blessing and comfort, including perfect health, and physical perfectness. All of this should make holiness easy.

(4) No bitter persecutions, no martyrs for the faith; and no obstacles to hinder confession. This should make salvation easy.

2. The presence of sinners on earth in the midst of God’s best age does not mean that God is a failure. It only speaks of the wickedness of the human heart, under the best that God can give.

3. At the close of the thousand years, Satan is loosed for a little season. His loosing is to bring into display the heart of myriads among men who never truly knew or loved the Lord Jesus. They may have outwardly submitted to His reign, but the King knew that they did not inwardly trust and serve Him.

The result of Satan’s loosing is that he shall go forth to deceive the nations in the four quarters of the earth, and gather them together to battle against the Lord. This will present a tremendous array of power as a multitude, in number as the sand of the sea, comes forth to surround the Holy City.

Christ allows them to gather, and then, without any fighting at all, the great host is destroyed by fire which comes down from God out of Heaven.

V. THE DEVIL’S FINAL ABODE (Rev 20:10)

1. The devil’s true character remains the same unto the end. He is “the devil that deceived them.” He began his work of deception in the Garden of Eden, and has continued unto this hour. Thus it is that Rev 20:10 opens with the significant words, “The devil that deceived them.”

After having been shut up in the pit of the abyss for 1000 years, we need not marvel that Satan is ready to do all in his power against the Lord,

2. The devil cast into the lake of fire. So herein was the Word of God about to be fulfilled; even as it is written: He, Christ, “must reign, until He hath put all enemies under His feet.” Now the devil who deceived them is being finally dealt with, and is cast into his final abode, from whence there is no escape.

3. Where the beast and the false prophet are. Mark the tense of the verb. It is present, and not past; it is “are” and not “were.” Thus we are told that the false prophet and the beast who had been cast into the lake of fire 1,000 years before, are still there.

VI. THE GREAT WHITE THRONE OF JUDGMENT (Rev 20:11-12)

1. The fleeing away of the earth. Here is most graphic language. “And I saw a Great White Throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.”

The Holy Spirit has told us in Peter’s Second Epistle: “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night: in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.”

2. The resurrection of the wicked dead has come. The thousand years of the Millennial Kingdom are past. The fulfillment of the words, “The rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished,” has now arrived.

We must also remember the words in Corinthians, “Every man in his own order.” “Then cometh the end,” “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” (This verse speaks of resurrection.) Yes, the wicked dead shall also live. There will be none left in their graves. No bodies will fail to be raised. Cremating does not make resurrection impossible with God. Being swallowed up at sea does not hinder resurrection.

3. The Great White Throne. As the wicked dead came forth, they came only to behold, on the one hand, the heaven fleeing away; while before them, on the other hand, the Great White Throne stood in solemn array.

Upon the throne sat One who was to judge them. That One must have been the Lord Jesus Christ, for all judgment is committed unto the Son.

VII. ACCORDING TO THEIR WORKS (Rev 20:13-15)

1. The wicked were judged according to their works. Here is a potent factor in the judgment of the wicked before the Great White Throne. There are too many who vainly imagine that they can live as they list, and that it does not matter. It does matter. Going to hell is not all that awaits the wicked. Being cast into the lake of fire is not all. They are to suffer according to that which they have done.

We cannot but remember how Christ once said to Capernaum, “It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee.” Nor are we forgetful of the words to Chorazin and Bethsaida, “It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you.”

2. Whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire. One thing was common to all of the wicked, to all whose names were not found in the Book of Life-they were cast into the lake of fire, It was their individual deeds which determined the extent of their woes in that lake of fire.

Why, in addition to the Book of Life, are there “the books” spoken about in Rev 20:12? It was from the records recorded in the books that they were to be judged according to their works.

3. The lake of fire. Here is a death from which there is no resurrection, and no chance of the new life which is in Christ Jesus, Into the place prepared for the devil and his angels, where the beast and the false prophet are, they also are cast. Sinner beware! Repent, while yet you may.

AN ILLUSTRATION

When we think of the resurrection of the righteous and their bliss, and of the wicked and their misery we are reminded of the following:

Eight miles from the city of Worcester, England, where the writer lived for many years, stands a fine old cathedral. Within may be seen, among other items of interest, an ancient slab upon which some hand, long centuries ago, carved the word Miserrimus- “most miserable.” Who can tell why that word, so expressive, was chosen by the unnamed dead?

“Poor, wretched, miserable,” was the dying wail of another, in this country, who had amassed enormous wealth, had lived sumptuously every day and at last lay dying amidst splendid luxury. Two words can explain that comfortless deathbed, without Christ. Everything that money could possibly procure was in the death-chamber, but that which is offered freely was unknown. Oh, the folly of man’s ambition: a few years of struggling for wealth, and then to go out alone upon the pitiless sea of eternal doom.

Another stone, far removed from the ancient city of Worcester made famous by the “Wars of the Roses,” lies in the vast underground burial place of the early Christians. In the catacombs of Rome, carved on a stone embedded in the walls, is the word Felicissimus-“most happy.” No speculation is needed here to know the reason. Banished from home, hunted and hated, these faithful followers of the Lord found refuge underground where hundreds lived, died, and were buried. Were they miserable in their poverty and trial? Ah, no! They had learned, like Paul, to say in circumstances of trial, “I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content” (Php 4:11). The. secret of true happiness was known to those early Christians so sadly persecuted, Christ was everything to them.-J. W. H. Nichols.

Fuente: Neighbour’s Wells of Living Water

Rev 20:1. Bottomless pit is from ABUSSOS which means the place in Hades where angels are cast when they sin and where wicked men go when they die.

Rev 20:2. In this verse the four words serpent, dragon, Devil and Satan are applied to the same being, so that we need have no doubt as to the one who is meant. Thousand years is a figurative expression that is not bound by the calendar- In symbolic language the Bible does not restrict itself to exact mathematical values of the numbers mentioned. Sometimes the period will be longer and at others it will be shorter. I shall cite one or two examples by way of illustration on the matter of this use of figurative time. In Dan 9:24 a prediction is made of seventy weeks and we know it actually means 490 years. In chapter 6:11 of our book the phrase little season really was to be until the Reformation which was several centuries in the future. The angel bound Satan with the chain mentioned in the preceding verse, and the chain was the Bible that was to be given back to the people in their own language. That chain bound him from the nations, which means the heads of the nations were able to see their rights by the information of the Book and realized that the devil had been deceiving them. When that occurred they resisted him and that chained him from them.

Comments by Foy E. Wallace

Introduction

XIII

THE BINDING OF SATAN AND THE REIGN OF THE SAINTS WITH CHRIST

(Chapter 20)

The last three chapters of Revelation were sequel to the visions of conflict in the preceding nineteen chapters, and presented in contrast a pageant of victory. Beginning with the twentieth chapter a new picture was presented, an imagery of changed conditions. With the close of the nineteenth chapter, Jerusalem had fallen, and the great symbolic enemies of the Cause of Christ–the beast and the false prophet–had been consigned to visional banishment. The dragon who instigated both the activities of the imperial beast and the deceptions of the false prophet (the landbeast) was about to be cast into the abyss, the bottomless pit, and thus be returned to his diabolical region in complete defeat. The twentieth chapter opened with the scenes of the culmination and climax of the great conflict.

This chapter has been full of confusion and the source of insurmountable difficulties, all of which have been due to the anachronism of wresting its contents from the period of the imperial persecutors and projecting its visions into centuries yet future for fulfillment. This has been the great mistake of attempting to make the book of Revelation a compendium of history–a thing that it is not. In the structural unity and orderly development of the Revelation, chapter twenty was the beginning of the scenes that made the victory of the church over hostile nations final and complete. Although the picture had changed, the continuity of the apocalyptic imagery in chapter twenty remained unbroken.

The apostate harlot Jerusalem had fallen; the great red dragon deceiver had been cast down from the position of assumed exaltation to his place in the abyss; the souls of the martyrs were no longer under the altar of a persecuted cause, but in the figurative first resurrection they have been elevated to thrones, reigning with Christ in the state of complete victory symbolized by thousand years; the surcease of persecution had come, symbolized by the binding of Satan, and his imprisonment to estop the source of deceiving the nations of the empire into the idolatry of emperor- worship; the persecutors represented as dead, lived not again; and the wicked nations stood in judgment before the great white throne of an avenging God. But the spiritual conflict between heathenism and Christianity was not abated by the cessation of the activities of the persecuting powers; and through this idolatry of paganism the influence of Satan was represented as loosed out of his prison to destroy the church, not by the weapon of persecution but by concentrating all the heathen forces of Gog and Magog, the symbolic head of heathendom, into spiritual battle against the beloved city–the New Jerusalem which symbolized the church. Again, in the final scene, the cause of the Christ triumphed over all the influences of the heathen world, and all the enemies of the church were made to stand before God to be judged according to their works.

(1) The twentieth chapter of Revelation.

It is a common expression, we hear it on every hand; that the Bible plainly says that Christ will reign on the earth a thousand years. That is something that the Bible nowhere says, plainly or vaguely. Like the battle of Armageddon notion, the millennium imagination is not in the Bible. Armageddon is mentioned in the Bible but the “battle of Armageddon” theory is nowhere found in the scriptures. The Bible has something to say about “a thousand years” but nothing about a thousand years reign on the earth. Christ reigns, but the reign of Rev 20:1-15 was not the reign of Christ. It was rather a peculiar and special reign of certain souls with Christ. It does not mention or refer to the reign of Christ. The ones mentioned were reigning; it was a special use of the word, applied to a special incident of the Revelation vision. The text says they lived and reigned. Where did they live and reign? They lived and reigned with Christ. John saw souls out of the body, not in the body. It was a vision of the souls of t h e martyrs living and reigning with Christ in a particular and peculiar sense.

In a conversation with any group of denominational preachers one will invariably be heard to say that the Bible plainly says that we shall reign with Christ on earth a thousand years. When the asserter is asked for the passage that so plainly says it, he will just as invariably and confidently refer his listeners to Rev 20:1-15, verse 4. It is in order, in time and in place now to dissect this misunderstood and misapplied passage of scripture.

This is the way its reads: 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.

The passage is almost universally believed to actually say that we shall reign with Christ on earth a thousand years. The text says, they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. The pronoun we is a personal pronoun of first person, but they is a personal pronoun of the third person; the verbs lived and reigned are verbs of past tense; but shall live and reign are verbs of future tense. No man can claim the right to change the sentence of this text from the third personal pronoun they to the first personal pronoun we, nor to change the verbs lived and reigned of the past tense to shall live and reign of future tense. That is too much change for any man to make who has an ounce of respect for the word of God.

John said, “they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” The passage says nothing about “the thousand years reign of Christ.” There is a great difference in the two expressions. Rev 20:1-15 says, “they lived and reigned with Christ.” They who? Lived–lived where? Reigned –how, with whom and where? “Lived and reigned”–with whom, in what place? It is not the reign of Christ, but the reign of souls “with Christ,” that is mentioned in Rev 20:1-15. There is a vast difference between living and reigning “with Christ” and a millennial reign “of Christ.”

So let us be true to the facts in the case. It does not mention the reign of Christ, but the reign of souls “with” him. They not only “reigned” with him, they “lived” with him. They “lived and reigned” with Christ a thousand years. The two verbs “lived” and “reigned” are both limited by the thousand years. If the expression denotes time, then when the reign is over, and they ceased to reign; the living would be over and they would cease to live.

Rev 20:1-15 : Note: Revelation 20 :l-6 does not mention the second coming of Christ. That is not the subject of it. It does not mention a bodily resurrection, and that is not the subject of it. It does not mention a reign on the earth, nor does it mention the “reign of Christ”–and neither is the subject. Is it not possible for souls to live and reign “with Christ” without Christ being on earth? Furthermore, it does not mention the throne of David or any other throne on earth. And it does not mention either Jerusalem or Palestine, nor does it mention Christ on earth.

Jesus said that Jerusalem is not the place where men should worship (Joh 4:21), but they want to put it there. He said that his kingdom is not of the world (Joh 18:36), but they want to put it here, and make it of the world. Can millennialists consistently say that though it mentions none of these things, it teaches all of them? It is altogether possible and consistent for all the things mentioned to exist without being on the earth.

(2) The thousand years reign with Christ.

There are twenty figures of speech in the nineteenth and twentieth chapters alone. In a series of symbols such as these, it is not reasonable to make a literal application of the thousand years and a figurative application of all the rest of the symbols, without a contexual or historical reason for doing so. The thousand years, like the other parts of the vision, is a figure of speech–a symbol of something else.

It is said in Deu 7:9 that God keeps his covenant and his mercy unto a thousand generations. God does not count a literal thousand generations, then quits remembering his covenant. It means God’s memory of and faithfulness to his covenant are perfect and complete. The term thousand was a figure of completeness. It does not denote a cycle of time.

Then what about the millennium? Nothing was said of a millennium. The thousand years did not mean a millennium. There is no millennium. There never was a millennium. There never will be a millennium. The twentieth of Revelation did not refer to a millennium. The thousand years was not literal, therefore was not a millennium and has no reference to a millennium. There is no connotation for the notion. The magic word millennium is not in the text.

In this vision John “saw thrones” and the ones that “sat on them.” And those whom he saw were the souls of the beheaded. They had not “worshipped” the beast. They had not “received” his mark, and they “lived” and “reigned” with Christ.

First: They lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. It does not mention the second coming of Christ, a bodily resurrection, a reign on the earth, or a literal throne in Jerusalem or elsewhere. It does not mention us, and it does not mention Christ on earth. Rev 20:1-15 mentions none of those things, and a curse was pronounced on the one who adds to the words of the book.

Second: They lived and reigned with Christ. It says “they”–the souls of the martyrs, those who were beheaded. The beheaded souls lived and reigned with Christ. Only those who were beheaded entered into that thousand years.

If that thousand years is literal, then the beheading is literal, and only those literally beheaded get into the millennium. If the beheading is figurative, the thousand years is figurative, and that cuts us out; for there could be no literal millennium. If it is a literal thousand years, it is a literal beheading. If it is a figurative beheading, it is a figurative thousand years, and either way there is no millennium for us.

Third: They lived and reigned. If the term “reigned” is limited by a thousand years, the verb “lived” is also limited by a thousand years. If the reigning ends with the thousand years, the living ends with a thousand years, and the millennium will end with everybody in it ceasing to live. That would be quite a hopeless millennium.

(3) The meaning of the first resurrection,

The expression this is the first resurrection is itself the proof that reference was made to a figurative resurrection. The word was being used in an unusual sense, so unusual that it was necessary for John to explain its use by saying, “this” is the first resurrection–that is why John explained that this is what was meant by the symbol.

The resurrection of the twentieth chapter of Revelation was a figurative or spiritual resurrection, and of the same character described by Ezekiel concerning Israel in captivity. The prophet Ezekiel was in Babylon with exiled Israel, and prophesied their return from Babylon in the vision of Eze 37:1-14 :

“The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones, and caused me to pass by them round about: and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and lo, they were very dry. And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, 0 Lord God, thou knowest. Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, 0 ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord, thus saith the Lord God unto these bones, behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and I will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the Lord. So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to bone, and when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them above; but there was no breath in them. Then said he unto me, prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God; Come from the four winds, 0 breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as I was commanded, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army. Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold they say, Our bones are dried and our hope is lost; we are cut off for our parts. Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; behold, 0 my people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, 0 my people, and brought you up out of your graves. And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it. said the Lord.”

Here was the description of a resurrection extraordinary, indeed. Taking Israel out of the land of their captivity and bringing them back to their own land was called a resurrection. They were in the grave of captivity in Babylon, yet they were a living people. God said that he opened their graves and brought them out and caused them to live–in their return to Judea and restoration to their land and their religion.

Now hear Isaiah, who prophesied the Babylonian exile one hundred years in advance: “0 Lord our God, other lords beside thee have had dominion over us: but by thee only will we make mention of thy name. They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise; therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish”– Isa 26:13-19. The reference here was to the wicked lords of the Old Testament. They were exercising dominion over God’s oppressed people.

They were “lords” over God’s people. Isaiah said, other lords once had “dominion” over them, but they were “dead,” and should not “live”; they were “deceased,” and should “not rise.” This could not mean that the wicked will not be raised from the dead. It could not mean that the wicked dead will not live again. If that is what it means, there will be no resurrection of the wicked, and a fundamental truth is thereby denied. But that is not the meaning.

Here is the meaning: The dominion of the wicked lords over God’s people would be put down. While these lords had dominion over God’s people they were said to “live”–live in their dominion. When their dominion should be destroyed and the oppression of God’s people brought to an end, these lords would be “dead”–they were dead as lords. They shall not live–that is, their dominion would not exist again.

But speaking of the persecuted people of God, the prophet said: “thy dead men shall live.” When Israel was in the bondage of the captivity of these lords, they were said to be dead–they were dead as a people in captivity; and the wicked lords were said to live–that is, in power and dominion. But when the dominion of the lords ended, they were demised, their power was deceased–they were dead; they should not “live” in wicked dominion; they should not “rise” as lords. In the opposite imagery of the prophecy Israel in captivity was in a state called “dead,” though living. Isaiah said “They shall live” and “they shall rise.” Thus coming out of the grave of their captivity represented a resurrection, but not a literal resurrection– it was a figurative resurrection. Now that was exactly the kind of resurrection pictured in Rev 20:1-15. One was the description of the persecuted Israel in the Old Testament; the other was the description of the persecuted church in the New Testament. The principle is the same.

Another example is in Paul’s reference to the spiritual resurrection of Israel: “For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?”–Rom 11:15. When the Jews were converted to Christ under the gospel, it was the receiving of them “as life from the dead.” That is another figurative resurrection–a spiritual resurrection.

When John saw the souls of the martyrs, slain for the testimony of Jesus and the word of God “under the altar” (chapter 6); then saw the same souls “on thrones” (chapter 20); it was a vision of victory. Taking the souls from beneath the altar and elevating them to the thrones was called a resurrection in exactly the same sense that bringing the people of Israel out of bondage in Babylon was opening their graves and causing them to “live”–a figurative death and a figurative resurrection.

A comparison here of two passages in the apocalypse will further reveal the nature of the resurrection of the twentieth chapter of Revelation.

First: “He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death”–Rev 2:11.

Second: “He that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power”–Rev 20:6.

Picturing in advance the persecutions of the early Christians, John declared in Rev 2:11 that he that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death. But in Rev 20:6, the same apostle speaking to the same persons, said, “he that hath part in the first resurrection; on such the second death hath no power.” Thus to have part in the first resurrection equaled exemption from the second death. But to overcome these persecutions equaled exemption from the second death.

1. Overcoming the persecutions equaled exemption from the second death.

2. Part in the first resurrection equaled exemption from the second death.

3. Things equal to the same thing are equal to each other.

4. Overcoming the persecutions and part in the first resurrection were equal to the same thing,

therefore they were equal to each other.

To support the theory of a future millennial reign of Christ, efforts are made to connect Rev 2:25-28; Rev 3:21-22 with Rev 20:1-6, as referring to the second coming of Christ, when he shall then give the saints “power over the nations,” and he shall then “rule them with a rod of iron”–in the millennium. Such an interpretation charges that Jesus deceived the church at Thyatira into believing that he would come during their lifetime. It should be observed again, as previously detailed in Section Two, that the “coming” of Christ is mentioned in several senses, elsewhere in the New Testament, and in Revelation. To Ephesus, Pergamos, Sardis and Laodicea, Christ said he would “come.” He would come in the events named, in things promised or threatened. To Thyatira he said: 1. To hold fast. 2. To overcome. 3. To keep his works. All of that “till I come,” which obviously did not refer to his second coming. Furthermore, the expressions in verses 26-28 were indicative of things that would occur in the life period of Thyatira: 1. Power over the nations–the influence of the gospel in breaking the power of pagan persecutions and the heathen nations. 2. Rod of iron–the irresistible influence of Christ in the preaching and lives of early Christians, exemplified even in martyrdom. 3. The morning star–the exalted place of those who overcome, next to Christ, in his glorious empire, the church.

On the same erroneous premises it is held that Rev 3:21-22 makes a distinction between the Father’s throne, upon which Christ is asserted to occupy now, and Christ’s own throne which it is claimed he will occupy when he returns. But the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Christ are one kingdom (Eph 5:5); and the church of God and the church of Christ are one church (1Th 1:1; 1Th 2:14); and the throne of God and the throne of Christ are one throne (Heb 1:8). Christians share Christ’s kingdom now (Luk 22:29); and they share his throne now (Rev 3:21-22).

For further textual comparisons, in Mat 19:28 it is stated that “in the regeneration” Jesus would sit on the throne of his glory, and in Mat 19:28 it is stated that the twelve apostles would occupy the thrones of authority in the same dispensation of regeneration. In Tit 3:4-5 Paul identified this gospel dispensation as “the regeneration.”

So in this dispensation Christ is occupying “the throne of his glory.” A comparison of Mat 20:21 and Mar 10:37 will prove that his kingdom and his glory are identical. A further comparison of Luk 24:26 and Heb 1:8 will show that entering into his kingdom and glory was connected with his ascension.

In Mat 19:28, Jesus said that the disciples who had followed him would sit on thrones. But in Luk 22:28 he declared that the disciples who had continued would be appointed the kingdom. Therefore to occupy thrones in this gospel dispensation was the same thing as to be appointed the kingdom–and both relations between Christ and Christians exist now.

In this gospel dispensation Christ is on the throne of his glory (Mat 19:28); and he is on the throne of his kingdom. (Heb 1:8)

This occupancy of his kingdom–glory throne extends from his ascension (Luk 24:26) to his coming (1Co 15:23-24). Christians who overcome “sit with him in his throne” now. They share his throne in the same sense, degree and extent that they share his glory and his kingdom, shown by the comparisons of these passages.

These considerations destroy the millennial interpretation of the Father’s throne and the Son’s throne, as respects a distinction and a difference between them, and refute their interpretations of all the Revelation passages forced to serve their theory.

The closing scene of Revelation was pictured in chapters 20,21 and 22 in a general summary of the elegant truths of the vision in relation to the obligations of the triumphant church, emerging from persecution and oppression into glorious victory.

As a sequel to the vision of victory, the last chapters of Revelation present the church garbed in the robes of victory “as a bride adorned for her husband.” The figure does not indicate that the church is not now the bride of Christ, as some have assumed. Rather, the apostle declares in Rom 7:4 that the church has been married to Christ and has brought forth fruit unto God in that relationship. The expression “as a bride adorned” was a comparison only–a graphic description of the grandeur of the triumphant church adorned in the glorious habiliments of victory, “prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” Having thus triumphed over all hostility and opposition and oppression and persecution the glorious church renewed her mission to all men in the second great invitation of Rev 22:17 : “The spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come.”

(4) A textual analysis of chapter twenty.

It has been shown that Rev 20:4 is altogether too inadequate as a text to sustain the millennial theory–and it is the only text that makes mention of the thousand years. Hence, they have no text. No apostle in any epistle has ever mentioned such a period of time, nor such a dispensation, nor such a millennial age or hope. It must not therefore belong to apostolic doctrine, or to the Christian’s hope and duty. Rev 20:1-15 was but the climax of an imagery that began with the scene of defeat in chapter 6:9 and ends in a scene of victory in chapter 20:4. The comparison of chapters six and twenty reveals the application of the symbols intervening. A running analysis of the final chapters will display the success of the cause of the martyrs and the glory of the victorious church.

Verses 1-2.

1. The angel coming down out of heaven. “And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit”–Rev 20:1-2.

The angel was Christ as a messenger of the gospel. The key to the abyss held by the evil angel in chapter 9:1 had been taken by Christ, signifying his power over death and hades, as stated in Rev 1:18. The chain represented the very purpose of the gospel to prevent the devil from deceiving men. Bound–not permitted to deceive–signified the triumph of the truth over error. A thousand years–as in all other places where the phrase was mentioned–denoted completeness. Here it had reference to the complete success of the cause over persecutions, and had no reference to a cycle of time. The triumph of Christ over Satan had been fully set forth in Mat 12:29 and Luk 11:21 in the parable of the strong man’s house; “When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace: but when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth the spoils.” So Jesus did in overcoming Satan and spoiling his goods and bringing to nought his power. So says Paul both in Col 2:15 and Heb 2:14, as previously shown in this series.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Rev 20:1. And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key of the abyss and a great chain upon his hand. We have here the second angel after the appearance of the Lord Himself at chap. Rev 19:11. This angel comes down out of heaven, commissioned therefore by God, and clothed with His power. He has the key of the abyss, which can be no other than that of chaps. Rev 9:1-2, Rev 11:7, and Rev 17:8. It is the abode of Satan, the home and source of all evil. It has a key, and this key is in the hands of Christ (comp. chap. Rev 1:18). By Him it is entrusted to the angel for the execution of His purposes. At chap. Rev 9:2 the angel opened the abyss; here he locks it. In addition to the key the angel has a great chain upon his hand, i.e hanging over his open hand and dropping down on either side. The chain is great because of the end to which it is to be applied and its fitness to secure it.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

This chapter begins with a fresh and glorious vision which St. John had of an angel’s descending from heaven, to bind Satan for a thousand years; and herein we have observable,

1. The person binding, the angel of the covenant, Christ Jesus (for he only has the keys of the bottomless pit, of hell, and of death, Rev 1:18. This angel is here said to come down from heaven, and with a great chain in his hand, denoting his omnipotent power and sovereignty over Satan, and his ability to restrain him.

Observe, 2. The person bound, Satan; where mark, that he is set forth here by five names, he is called the Dragon, the Serpent, the Old Serpent, the Devil, and Satan.

And note, Christ’s power is set forth in as many terms as the devil has titles, he is said to lay hold on him, to bind him, to cast him into the bottomless pit, to shut him in, or seal him up for a thousand years, that is, to restrain him and render him incapable of doing such mischief to the world as he had done before.

Observe, 3. What we are to understand by Christ’s binding Satan: some thereby do understand Christ’s overthrowing the power of the devil in the heathen world; his casting down those strong holds of Satan, to wit, ignorance, superstition, idolatry, and lying oracles, by the light and power of the gospel, preached among the Gentiles; his curbing of Satan, that he should no more cozen the world with heathenish delusions as he had done.

Others understand this binding of Satan to be after the destruction of antichrist; when the Jews shall be converted, and there shall follow a quiet and peaceable state of the church for a long time, styled here a thousand years; during which time Satan shall be bound, and there shall be no molestation from him.

From the whole learn, That be the devil never so devilish, Christ has power to overpower him. Christ has a great chain in his hand to bind Satan: intimating, that how mighty and malicious soever Satan is, Christ has him as a dog in a chain.

But observe a little, how Christ’s power meets with and masters Satan’s power: the devil carries power in his name, he is called a dragon; in his nature, as being an angel; in his numbers, which are numberless: but Christ overpowereth him, so that he cannot do his own will without him; he bound him in the execution of his malice, though his malice be boundless.

Satan is bound in a double chain, in a chain of justice, and in a chain of providence; he cannot move a foot either to tempt or trouble us, without a permission from Christ.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

The Binding of Satan

One of God’s angelic messengers is portrayed as being sent down from heaven with a key to the abyss. In the New Testament, “abyss” is particularly used of the abode of demons and their leader, Satan ( Luk 8:31 ; Rev 9:1-2 ; Rev 9:11 ; Rev 11:7 ; Rev 17:8 ; Rev 20:1 ; Rev 20:3 ). The key represents power over Satan (compare Rev 1:18 ). The great chain is literally “upon the hand” (A.S.V. margin) of Satan and may be the same as the little book of Rev 10:2 , which was also in, or upon, the hand of an angel.

Satan is again described as the dragon because he is ferocious; the old serpent, because he was the deceiver of Eden; the Devil, because he is man’s accuser or slanderer; and Satan, because he is man’s adversary ( Rev 12:9 ). Satan had to be restrained for men to be able to enter the kingdom of God ( Mat 12:24-30 ; Col 2:15 ). The only way for man to overcome the fear of death and the bondage of sin was through Christ’s resurrection ( Heb 2:14 ; Rev 1:18 ). One thousand is a multiple of 10, thus a perfect number standing for a complete period of time. Notice, Satan is still able to work ( 1Pe 5:8 ), but he cannot tempt the Christian without God making a way to escape nor can he hold the Christian in bondage to death. Satan was cast into the abyss and restrained from doing the work he desired to do. He will be loosed for a little time, which Shelly says is a loosing for judgment ( Rev 20:1-3 ).

Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books

Rev 20:1-3. And I saw an angel An especial minister of Providence; come down from heaven With a commission from God; having the key of the bottomless pit Invested with power to open or to shut it; see on Rev 9:1; and a great chain in his hand Emblematical of his power to perform the work here assigned him. And he laid hold on the dragon Who, after the destruction of the beast and of the false prophet, (to whom he had delegated his power,) still remained; that old serpent That ancient enemy of the human race, who, in the form of a subtle serpent, deceived the first parents of mankind, and brought sin and death into the world, with an incalculable train of evils attendant on them; who is the Devil The malicious and false accuser of Gods saints, as the word , so rendered, signifies; and Satan The grand adversary both of God and man; and bound him a thousand years That is, at least one thousand literal years; during which the light of the gospel shall be diffused through all the world, and the reign of truth and righteousness be established universally among men. I think, says Doddridge, we must despair of being able to interpret any passage of Scripture upon the plainest principle of reason, if this do not signify that there shall be such a period as this, in which Satan shall be remarkably restrained, and the Christian interest shall prevail. But whether the one thousand years are here to be taken literally, as is most probable; or whether here [as elsewhere in this book] each day is put for a year, and consequently the whole period be three hundred and sixty thousand years, I will not pretend to determine. This thought has been very lately started by an ingenious and worthy person, who, I doubt not, hath intended the service of Christianity; though I am very apprehensive he has failed in some of the mediums by which he has endeavoured to prove this point. And cast him into the bottomless pit His infernal prison; afterward he is cast into the lake of fire; and shut him up therein, and set a seal upon him These are strong figures, to show the certain, strict, and severe restraint which he shall be laid under; that he might deceive the nations no more During this whole period. One benefit only is here expressed as resulting from the confinement of Satan; but how many and great blessings are implied! For the grand enemy and opposer of truth and righteousness being removed, the kingdom of God holds on its uninterrupted course among the nations; and the great mystery of God, so long foretold, is at length fulfilled Namely, when the beast and false prophet are destroyed, and Satan bound. This fulfilment approaches nearer and nearer, and contains things of the utmost importance, the knowledge of which becomes every day more distinct and easy. In the mean time, it is highly necessary to guard against the present rage and subtlety of the devil; remembering that the events which are to precede the binding of him, and the commencing of these one thousand years, are awful, and shortly to be expected, one after another, namely, the calamities implied in the vintage, (Rev 14:18,) the pouring out of the last three vials, the judgment of Babylon, the last raging of the beast and false prophet, and their destruction. How great things are these! and how short the time! What is needful for us? Wisdom, patience, faithfulness, watchfulness. Surely this is not a time for us to settle upon our lees. This, if it be rightly understood, will not be an acceptable message to the wise, the mighty, the honourable of this world. Yet that which is to be done shall be done: there is no counsel against the Lord. After that he must be loosed So does the mysterious wisdom of God permit; for a little season For a small time, comparatively: though, upon the whole, it cannot be very short, because the things that are to be transacted therein (see Rev 20:8-9) must take up a considerable space.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Revelation Chapter 20

We now come, evil power having been set aside, to the exercise of judicial authority in peace; and this is conferred on the saints. The prophet does not merely see the thrones as set in Dan 7:1-28., but sitters on them too. Besides all to whom judgment is given in general, two special classes are mentioned, because they might seem to be too late, or to have lost their part: those beheaded (after theassembly was gone, for it is the Revelation-period we have to do with) for the witness of Jesus; and those who had not worshiped the beast. (Compare Rev 6:9-11; Rev 13:15.) These, as well as previously departed saints, had their part in living and reigning with Christ a thousand years. But those who were not Christs, the rest of the dead did not live again till the thousand years were over. [20] These were finally delivered from the second death. The first death they had undergone, the natural wages of sin, but in faithfulness; in the second death, the final judgment against sin, they would have no part. It could have no power over them. On the contrary, they had special relationship with God and Christ, they were priests of God and of Christ, and would reign with Him a thousand years. They also are priests and kings. Note how God and Christ are here united in one thought, as continually in the writings of John. Thus the beast and the false prophet are in the lake of fire, their armies slain, and Satan bound in the abyss, and the risen saints are priests to God and Christ, reigning with Christ a thousand years. The details and effects, mark, are not given here. The object is to give the place of the saints, and especially of the sufferers, during the time of this book. The rest come in as a general fact, there were sitters on thrones of judgment; but the faithful of the prophecy are specially mentioned.

When the thousand years are finished, Satan is let loose again. He comes up on the earth, but he never gets up to heaven again. But the nations are tested by his temptation. Not even having seen Christ and enjoyed the fruits of His glory-no mere means can secure the heart of man, if it is to be depended upon; and men fall, in number as the sand of the sea, into Satans hands as soon as tempted; enjoying blessing, where unfaithfulness would have been present loss (perhaps cutting off) and there was nothing to tempt them, but unfaithful as soon as they are tempted, as soon as the heart is tried. It was the last and needed trial of man; needed because they could not have finally enjoyed God with natural hearts, and the natural heart had not been tested where present blessing was on the side of owning a present, visible, glorious Christ. The deceived multitude, not limited now to a third of the earth or a special prophetic district but taking in the breadth of the earth, went up against the camp of the saints, and surrounded it and the beloved city, Jerusalem. It is remarkable here, there is no special presence of Christ amongst them. They are left apparently to be surrounded by their enemies. The Lord has allowed all this testing separation of personal faithfulness. Had He appeared of course these hostile crowds could not have come up, nor would the thorough trial of the heart have proved the faithfulness of the saints, who would not follow the seductions of Satan. They are pressed upon and surrounded by the enemy, but faithful. Once this separation and full testing had been accomplished, Gods judgment fell on them from heaven, and destroyed them. The devil was then cast into the lake of fire, where the beast and the false prophet were already, where they are tormented for ever and ever.

This closed the exercise of wrath, of the destruction of hostile power-a wondrous scene-that God should have enemies in this world! Now judicial power, as such, seated in its own right, comes in. It may be remarked, that the exercise of this on the quick, forms no part of the contents of this book. The hostile power of the beast was destroyed by Him who judges and makes war, the heavenly saints having been taken to glory. The crowds of apostates at the end of the thousand years are destroyed by fire from heaven. But the judgment of Mat 25:1-46 is not found here, unless there be a possible connection with the judgment of Rev 20:4.

There now comes the judgment of the dead. There no coming here. A great white throne is set; judgment is carried on according to the purity of Gods nature. It was no dealing with the earth, or the power of evil, but with souls. Heaven and earth-all mere scenes of judgment-disappear. The secrets of mens hearts are judged by Him who knows them all. Heaven and earth flee away before the face of Him that sat on the throne, and the dead, small and great, stand before the throne. Judgment was according to works, as it was written in the books of record. Still another element was brought into view. Sovereign grace alone had saved according to the purpose of God. [21] There was a book of life. Whosoever was not written there was cast into the lake of fire. But it was the finally closing and separating scene for the whole race of men and this world. And though they were judged every man according to his works, yet sovereign grace only had delivered any; and whoever was not found in graces book was cast into the lake of fire. The sea gave up the dead in it; death and hades, the dead in them. And death and hades were put an end to for ever by the divine judgment. The heaven and earth passed away, but they were to be revived; but death and hades never. There was for them only divine destruction and judgment. They are looked at as the power of Satan. He has the power of death and the gates of hades; and hence these are for ever destroyed judicially. They will never have power again. They are personified; but of course there is no question of tormenting them or of punishment: when the devil himself is cast in, there is. But death was not then destroyed; for the wicked dead had not been raised for judgment. Now they had; and the last enemy is destroyed. The force of the image, I doubt not, is that all the dead now judged (the whole contents of hades, in whom the power of death had been) were cast into the lake of fire, so that death and hades, which had no existence but in their state, were entirely and judicially ended by their being cast in. The saints had long before passed out of them; but they subsisted in the wicked. Now these were, consequent on the judgment of the white throne, cast into the lake of fire-the second death. The limit and measure of escape was the book of life.

Footnotes for Revelation Chapter 20

20: It may be noted here that, according to the true reading, the living and reigning is certainly resurrection. The rest of the dead lived not until, & etc.; so that it is clearly used here for resurrection, as the following words confirm: This is the first resurrection.

21: Thus purpose and mans responsibility are never confounded, but, from the two trees of the garden on, are in juxtaposition; life brought into connection with responsibility in the law, responsibility being put first, and thus proof given that man cannot stand before God; but the question is solved only in Christ, who bore our sins, died for us to sin, and is life. Counsels and promise of life in Christ come first, then responsibility in the creature on earth, then grace making good counsels, in righteousness, through the cross.

Fuente: John Darby’s Synopsis of the New Testament

SATANS ARREST AND INCARCERATION

SIX thousand years have rolled away amid the dismal night of Satans reign. Terrific has been the probationary ordeal. Hells harvest has swept on and on through the forlorn and dreary ages. Perdition has devoured a hundred generations, with an exception here and there. Humanity without God has proved a miserable failure in every dispensation. The Antediluvian world became so awfully wicked that God saw that existence simply meant damnation. Hence, in mercy, He must sweep them from the earth. Likewise, each Post-diluvian Dispensation has gone on from bad to worse, till the wickedness of the nations and the abominations of fallen Churches have culminated in the terrible judgments of the great tribulation, which has swept the unsavable into perdition. Satan hath wrought valiantly, and hell is well filled. Since the inauguration of the premillennial judgments inflicted by the Ancient of Days against a wicked world and fallen Church, the tide of most disastrous defeat has set against the devil. For six thousand years he was the custodian of hell, having charge of the key, which he turned against countless millions, sparing neither age, sex, rank, dignity, priest, nor potentate. Revelation 9 th exhibits him in sole possession the key of the bottomless pit. Amid the awful reverses which he suffered during the Armageddon conflicts, among other terrible losses, the key of hell is wrested from him.

1. It is now in the hands of the police-angel, descending from heaven with a great chain. Behold, he arrests the devil like a common desperado, binds him hand and foot with the chain, takes the key and unlocks the pandemonium of unquenchable fire, casts him into a dismal, gloomy dungeon, locks him up, and puts the seal of the Almighty on the ponderous iron door: No exit for the next thousand years! This is an awful day in Satans eventful history. He has seen the trophies of six thousand years of successful warfare all vanish into the night of dark despair. For ages kings, potentates, popes, and priests have been his loyal subjects. They have all fallen and perished. Pope and Mahomet, the last of all to survive the wreck of premillennial judgments, have been precipitated into the burning lake. Hence he now stands alone, as when he invaded Eden six thousand years ago. The very solitude of his situation is appalling in the extreme. He sees the sheriff of the heavenly government approaching to lay violent hands on him. His adamantine heart melts with cowardice. Trembling in his boots for his inevitable doom, he succumbs to his fate. Already the sweeping revival conducted by the King of glory and the transfigured saints of His bridehood has compassed the globe, girdled the continents, and inundated all nations with the glories of entire sanctification, which is the millennial experience. Therefore, the long- prayed-for sunburst of the heavenly glory has already come down on the world, and the millennium has come, and come to stay. Jesus reigns, and reigns victorious over heaven and earth most glorious. The dismal night of sin, hiding millions of cruel devils, spreading devastation and death throughout the world, has retreated before the bright effulgence of the glorious millennial day. Truly, the halcyon days of dear old Eden have come back. Dont you hear the ring of the anvil? They are even now beating the bloody swords of war into plowshares and the cruel spears into pruning-hooks. The Omnipotent Healer is here, and sickness is fast becoming unknown. Physicians have thrown away their pill-bags, and turned to Holiness evangelists. The dark memories of Satans bloody reign of a thousand weary years are fast fading away and sinking into oblivion.

Glory to God for a world without a devil in it! Satan and his myrmidons have all retreated away, to trouble the world no more for the next thousand years.

During the long reign of sin, the earth has been terribly abused, brutalized, barbarized, beggarized, and impoverished. Under the pacific reign of our glorious King, co-operated in every city, village, island, and continent by His transfigured saints, whose delight will be to rule in wisdom, instruction, righteousness, and love, the waste lands will be repaired and fertilized, the marshes drained and transformed into fruitful fields, and the deserts irrigated and metamorphosed into blooming gardens. After the ejectment of Satan and his myrmidons, and the consequent expurgation of the diabolical institutions out of the world, the castigatory judgments of God will cease.

The fruits, no longer nipped by frost nor blighted by drought, will literally burden the fields with their inexhaustible exuberance. The rich will delight in relieving the poor, till poverty shall actually depart from the whole earth. Wisdom, industry, enterprise, disinterested philanthropy, and spontaneous benefactions, under the benignant reign of Prince Immanuel, will transform the earth into a paradise. Thus the Edenic state, when humanity walked with God, in blissful ignorance of Satan and his devices, after the long, dreary night of six thousand years, has actually come back, and come to stay. Sickness and sorrow have alike retreated away, and the generations are approximating Antediluvian longevity. Translation without dying was the original economy of the Edenic state. Presumptively translation, in millennial times, will again become common.

RESURRECTION OF THE TRIBULATION SAINTS

4. I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, who did not worship the beast, nor his image, and did not receive his mark upon their foreheads, and upon their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. Judgment, in this quotation, means the government of the world. Hence the problem is settled, without controversy, that the risen and translated martyrs will rule the world, as the subordinates of Christ, during the millennium. Paul assures us, in 1Th 4:13-18, that Christ, when He comes to reign, will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. In the same Scripture, he notifies us that the Lord will come after those who sleep in Jesus and take them up, before He brings them down with Him.

In our Saviors sermon on the judgments, which He preached on Mt. Olivet the day before He was crucified (Matthew 24; Mark 13; and Luke 21), describing His coming in the premillennial judgment, He says: Two men shall be in a field; one is taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one is taken, and the other left. He also says:

When the Son of man cometh, He will send forth His angels to gather His elect out of the four quarters of the earth, from one extremity of the heavens, even unto the other extremity.

Now this cannot be the final judgment; for at that time all the people on the earth, both living and dead, will be taken, whereas you see, in this judgment, only the elect are taken. These Scriptures confirm, beyond controversy, the doctrine of the rapture; i.e., that our Lord will come before the tribulation and take up His elect i.e., the members of His bridehood raising the dead and translating the living. Dan 12:1 says: Every one written in the book shall be delivered from that awful time of trouble, such as the world has never seen, and never will again.

Hence, the first resurrection will take place before the great tribulation and the terrible premillennial judgments set in, when the Lord takes up His bride. Then, what is this resurrection (Rev 20:4)? It is a supplement to the first resurrection, for the especial benefit of the tribulation saints. None but the wholly sanctified will go up in the rapture. As we see in the case of the virgins (Mat 25:1-13), the unsanctified will be left. They are simply called foolish because they did not get their vessels filled with oil; i.e., get sanctified. So the Holy Ghost calls all the Christians in the world foolish who do not go forward into entire sanctification. Had not these foolish virgins lost their religion? The English would so indicate. But it is a wrong translation. The Greek does not say, Our lamps are gone out; but, Our lamps are going out; i.e., they are burning low. As none but those who are filled with the Holy Ghost can enter the marriage-supper, therefore the foolish virgins were excluded-not from the kingdom of grace, unless they afterward let their lamps go out, but from the bridehood of Christ. Lighting the lamp is regeneration, the first work of grace. When this was done, the virgins were all alike. Afterward, five heeded the call of wisdom and got their vessels filled with oil i.e. the Holy Ghost i.e., wholly sanctified. Meanwhile, the other five so egregiously manifested their lack of true wisdom, by not getting their vessels filled with oil i.e., entirely sanctified-that inspiration designates them foolish virgins. Thus, when our Lord takes up His bride, all the Christians on the earth who are not filled with the Holy Ghost i.e., sanctified wholly will be left to stem the horrors of the tribulation.

Amid the awful troubles which shall flood the whole earth, testing all souls to the bottom, in the utter absence of all the sanctified people, it is to be feared that the great majority will backslide and lose their souls. However, to our comfort, we see from this Scripture that some will get sanctified during the tribulation and persevere to the end. But it is a significant fact that they will all have their heads cut off. Antichrist will rally his bloodthirsty millions against those who refuse to worship the beast and his image i.e., the world and its fashion and do not receive the mark of the beast on their persons. Strong drink, tobacco opium, gluttony, licentiousness, the corset, jewelry and all vain, gay, needless ornamentation, are the marks of the carnal beast, by which he designates the victims of sin, death, and damnation. It is a significant fact that every one of these suffered the cruel martyrdom of decapitation. Souls here, pursuant to common parlance, simply means persons. At the beginning of this verse, John says, I saw thrones. Presumptively, these thrones are occupied by the members of the bridehood, who have gone up in the rapture. They now reign with Christ over the nations. At the millennium, they are joined in their administration by all the tribulation martyrs, who are now raised from the dead and honored with the participation in the millennial theocracy.

5. The rest of the dead live not till the thousand years may be fulfilled. This is the first resurrection. From this verse you see that the first resurrection will only include the martyrs. It is an impressive fact that the same Greek word means martyr and witness Hence, in order to be a true witness for Jesus, you must have the martyr spirit; i.e., be constantly ready to suffer martyrdom. If you are really a true witness for Jesus under all circumstances, even at the peril of your life, the Holy Ghost calls you a martyr, whether you ever seal your faith with your blood or not. The Scriptures positively confirm the conclusion that all except the martyrs will sleep on in the sepulchral dust till the great white throne shall set and the final resurrection shall supervene. Oh, Blessed and holy is he that has Part in the first resurrection; over these the second death hath no power. but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years. The word holy in this verse is the same word which means sanctified. This word, with its synonyms, occurs six hundred times in the Bible. Oh, what an inspiration to every soul to get sanctified wholly. Why does the second death have no power over the participants of the first resurrection? Because they have passed their probation, and now occupy their transfigured bodies. Did not the angels fall and become devils? This took place while passing through their probationary state. Evidently all created intelligences are originally on probation. Doubtless the inhabitants of those heavenly worlds nave long ago completed their probation. Hence we hear of no more apostasy. So it is with all who enjoy a part in the first resurrection. Being raised and translated when our Lord comes to reign, their probation having ended, they will enjoy the transfigured glory, forever triumphant over the second death. Of course, even the saints who shall live upon the earth during subsequent ages, in their mortal bodies, will still be on probation, exposed to temptations, liable to fall, and finally incur the horrors of the second death. This verse clearly assures us that all the participants of the first resurrection, whether risen or translated, will reign with Christ a thousand years. Oh, blessed assurance and thrilling inspiration, driving all indifference, stupidity, and ennui beyond the North Pole. Just to think that our Savior is liable to descend this moment, raise His buried saints, translate the living, invest us with a crown and a scepter, and promote us to a throne to participate in His glorious millennial reign.

SATANS POST-MILLENNIAL INVASION AND FINAL DEFEAT

7. The millennial ages have flown. A thousand years of Paradisian prosperity and happiness have rolled away. Meanwhile the inhabitants of earth have never heard the grim tocsin of war, the balmy breezes of universal peace, laden with the aroma of perennial fruits and flowers, having circled the globe a thousand years. All the theaters have been turned into Churches, the saloons into depositories for Bibles and Holiness books, the race-fields and penitentiaries into Holiness camp-grounds. Long ago the bloody memories of sin, darkness, trouble, sorrow, death, and damnation have sunk into oblivion, eternally eclipsed by the effulgent glories of the millennial reign. Earth is basking in the sunshine of heaven, not dreaming that she will ever sorrow again. Why did God let the devil out of hell? a thousand years had rolled away; meanwhile millennial glory has belted the globe from the rising of the sun to his going down. Generation after generation has brightened the world with their holy lives, and swept into heaven with a tremendous boom, thus populating the city of God with the teeming millions of the millennial world. Dog-fennel and pennyroyal have overgrown the road to hell. Meanwhile Satan is muttering in the deep, dark dungeon of the pandemonium: Yes, Son of God, of course you can have everything your own way while you keep the hound with this chain in the gloomy old prison of the bottomless pit. I dare you to let me out! I will show you that the boasted religion of all these Holiness fanatics, whose roaring shouts have been my constant annoyance the last thousand years, is all hypocritical bosh. Just let me out, give me a tilt at that old world, and I can upset the whole compoodle. Do you not see that it will be for the glory of Christ to let him try his hand? What floods of light, glory, and consolation have swept down the ages, emanating from the terrible afflictions of Job, when God turned him over to the devil to test the solidity of his religion So will the glory of God flash out with unprecedented brilliancy from Satans final assault on humanity, and move down the ages of eternity with incessantly accumulating luster.

8. We see from this verse that Satans army, with which he essays to conquer the world, is made up of Gog and Magog. Now let us see who they are. In Noahs family originated the trinity of races. Ham in Hebrew means black; Shem, red; and Japheth, white. Upon the subsidence of the Flood, Noah divided the world among his three sons, giving Ham Africa, Shem Asia, and Japheth Europe. Gog and Magog are only spoken of in this passage, Genesis 10 th, and Ezekiel 38 th. Gog means king, and Magog means the kingly people; i.e., the nobility. Genesis 10 th notifies us that they are the children of Japheth, the ancestor of all the white people. In Ezekiel 38 th they are elaborately mentioned as resident in Russia. There is too much religion in the world, after millennial holiness has belted the globe a thousand years, for Satan to attack it as a roaring lion. Meanwhile the tide of millennial glory is moving around the world with unabated momentum, and not a human being is dreaming of Satans awful exit from the bottomless pit, and his impending raid into Immanuels kingdom. Behold, Diabolus evacuates the pandemonium, transforms himself into a great political and military leader, like Napoleon Bonaparte perhaps in the very person of the Russian Czar enters this world with royal pomp and pageantry, everywhere haranguing the multitude, aspiring to captivate them by his learned and eloquent speeches and disaffect them toward King Immanuel, and render them dissatisfied with His administration, at the same time doing his utmost to persuade them to revolt and set up an independent government, in which he offered them the most perfect freedom, as well as the grandest official emoluments. He enjoys the wonderful convenience of locomotion at lightning speed. (Luk 18:10.) He finds multitudes of followers among all the Japhethetic i.e., white races, especially in Russia. It is a significant fact, at the present day, that the Japhethetic races rule the world. The great princes, potentates, millionaires, gold-bugs, and railroad kings are white men. With no devil to lead them, they quietly submit during the long ages of the millennial reign. Meanwhile they muse much on their illustrious ancestry, who possessed the money and ruled the world. Now Satan arouses them by his blandishing speeches, and inflates them with glowing aspirations to regain their lost power and rule the world again. You must remember that the millennial generations will be born with depraved hearts, as we are. In the absence of the devil to stir that depravity, and actuated by the transfigured agencies of saving grace, they will be converted before they lose their infantile justification, and sanctified before they backslide. Hence a gigantic Christianity will fill the world. When Satan comes out of hell he makes his adroit appeals to this hereditary depravity. With paradoxical expedition he traverses all nations, tip-toeing and vociferating the eloquent appeals of his stentorian voice in the ears of countless multitudes. You must remember, at that time the world will have a tremendous population ten, and perhaps a hundred, times as large as at the present day. Among the descendants of the old nabob families of the different white races, he receives a large following; but among Shemites and Hamites he receives no response. There are at present three hundred millions of negroes in Africa. Doubtless, by the close of the millennium, they will number three thousand millions. The negro is intuitively more religious than the white man. When all the negroes in Africa have shouted full salvation a thousand years, the Dark Continent checkered with railroads and illuminated with Holiness camp-grounds and colleges, those grand old Ethiopians will stand flatfooted, throw their big mouths open, and shout the devil out of countenance, till he will be glad to retreat crest- fallen from the land of Ham, without a single follower. The Mongolian races, at the present day, are estimated at eight hundred millions. They constitute the mighty nations of the Orient. Presumptively, they will number eight thousand millions by the close of the millennium. Immutability is the striking peculiarity of the Orientals. When the almond- eyed Chinaman has rung out the hallelujahs of entire sanctification a thousand years, he will not be captured by Satans sophistical promises to make him a mandarin. Hence the devil will make a total failure with the numberless sons of Shem, who people the mighty East. War is something quite new in the world. Not a gun has been fired in the last thousand years. From the days of Peter the Great, who predicted that the bear should lie down on the banks of the Indian Ocean, Russia has had her eye on the Holy Land.

9. Satan now musters the innumerable hosts of Gog and Magog, and coils them around Jerusalem like a huge boa-constrictor. By the close of the millennium, doubtless Jerusalem, the capital of the millennial kingdom, will be the metropolis of the world. The site is the finest on the globe for the metropolitanship of the world. It is the geographical center of the six grand divisions of the earth the most accessible spot beneath the skies. The very earth rests on the finest building material in the world, and at the same time the inexhaustible fertilizer of soils. I doubt not but at that time Jerusalem will extend over the vast interior highlands of Palestine. The people are not alarmed. The King of Glory reigns on the earth. Satans army encompasses Jerusalem with impunity, inspired by their audacious leader, sanguine of success, as they see no enemy arrayed against them. A thousand years ago the Lords people transformed all their military equipage into farming implements, and committed the keeping of their country to the glorious King. Their faith is unshaken by the clangor of arms and the glitter of a million swords in the splendor of a Palestinian sun. The Eastern skies are illuminated with the gorgeous eclat of Satans royal army. The devil, from his magnificent portable pavilion, issues command through a thousand swift couriers to put the battle in array against the holy city. At that moment Omnipotence interposes, fire comes down from heaven, and utterly consumes Satans army.

10. Now Satan is again arrested, and cast into the lake of fire, this interposition giving a final termination to his post-millennial and last campaign against this world. Never again will he be permitted to put his foot on it. You see that it will be much for the glory of Christ to let the devil test the millennial world. He would always have said that he could abduce them into rebellion against God if an opportunity had been given. Floods of light and truth emanate from Satans post-millennial campaign against this world.

(a) As the long war between Christ and Satan is destined to wind up, the problem of his final destiny presents itself for solution. Here we have an irrefutable confirmation of his utter and hopeless irreclaimability. After suffering the unutterable horrors of a hell-prison a thousand years, we find him just as proud, arrogant, ambitious, and bloodthirsty as when he ruled the world with a rod of iron. With what promptitude and alacrity lie proceeds at once to ruin the world again!

(b) It is also a confirmation of hereditary depravity, even surviving the swelling floods of millennial grace a thousand years. This is evidenced by the mighty revolt of Gog and Magog.

(c) It is also a confirmation of the wonderful triumphs of millennial grace, in the fact that Satan makes a total failure with all the world, except Gog and Magog.

(d) The divine intervention which pours fire on Satans army besieging Jerusalem, and utterly exterminating them, involves the consolatory assurance that God will never again permit Satan to prevail against the human race.

(e) It forever refutes the Universalian dogma of remedial punishment, as Satan had the benefit of it a thousand years, and came out just as he went in, and had to be sent back again. Hence, this confirms the irremedial doom of all the wicked when they leave this world. We have a repetition of the Greek phrase, which so frequently occurs in the New Testament, eis tous aioonastoon aioonoon, defining the duration of the punishment in reservation for the devil, the beast, the false prophet, and all their followers. The English translates it forever and ever. More literally it would read, unto ages of ages, or, eternities of eternities. The very same phrase tells how long the saints will live in glory, and how long God will exist. Hence the infallible logic of the Holy Ghost settles the question beyond possible cavil that hell will smoke so long as heaven shouts. The wicked will suffer the horrors of the burning lake so long as the righteous rejoice in the presence of God, and so long as God Himself shall live.

THE FINAL JUDGMENT (Rev 11:15)

The great white throne now dazzles the gaze of earths teeming millions. The wicked multitudes who have lived on the earth in all bygone ages now respond to the archangels trump and come forth. We have here no account of the Lords coming, because He has been here ever since the beginning of the millennium. How long the post-millennial ages will last we can have no definite idea. Hence, perhaps the millennial glory will shine on and bless the world long ages after the expiration of the scheduled thousand years.

Isa 53:8 : Who shall declare His generation? For He was cut off out of the land of the living. In this chapter a millennial Jew stands on the heights of prophetic illumination, looks back two thousand years, bewails the blindness of his people in the first coming of his Lord, which utterly disqualified them to recognize Him, but left them to the caprices of the devil, who infatuated them to nail Him to the cross. Generation here means race or posterity. If Christ had not died, He would have had no spiritual offspring. If the acorn does not die, it will never produce the giant oak. In regeneration, ye are born; in sanctification, you die. If you do not die i.e., get sanctified the normal conclusion follows that you will have no posterity. The interrogation, Who shall declare His generation? means that neither man nor angel can enumerate the mighty multitudes of Gods spiritual children in Christ. We are living in the age of darkness, sin, Satan, and damnation, in which hell is devouring the multitudes of earth, and Jesus says: The saved are few (Luk 13:23). Hence the present age is hells great harvest. The millennium will be heavens great harvest. Such will be the flooded populations and the sweeping tide of salvation inundating the world, in the blissful absence of the devil, through the long run of the millennial ages, that in the grand finale, when the infinitesimal multitudes of Adams race shall stand before the great white throne, the innumerable hosts, saved by the triumphant Christ, will so vastly outnumber the motley rabble of Satans conquest as to throw it into eternal eclipse. As the Son of God will encumber the final judgment- throne, this notable epoch will produce no interregnum in His continuous reign from His descension on the cloud at the beginning of the millennium, and in no way conflict with the eternal perpetuity of His reign on the earth. Christ came to destroy the works of the devil and eternally expel him from this world, as well as the universe of God.

The books were opened. These are the books of record in the plural number, because they are many. They contain the record of all the sins committed by the wicked, and all the good works of the righteous Neither the sins of the righteous nor the good deeds of the wicked will be mentioned in the judgment. The popular idea of this judgment going through in twenty-four hours is a great mistake. Day, in the Bible, means a period. God will take plenty of time. What is the utility of this judgment? It is demonstrative of human character, and vindicatory of the Divine administration. God does not need it to find out what to do with you. Every soul in the universe is either condemned or acquitted every moment of its existence. Your condemnation dates from your sin. The infinite dissimilitude which characterizes the whole world will continue through all eternity. Hence infinitesimal will be the degrees of punishment in hell and reward in heaven. The benignity of God requires the presence of the entire human race, and especially all of the guardian angels, in this final adjudication of all human destiny. Human courts, in all ages, have condemned the innocent and honored the guilty. This is the grand appellate court of the universe, which will reverse all the maladministrations of all ages, and rectify all wrongs, and settle all issues forever. Here every character will be thoroughly ventilated, elucidated, and illustrated, so every soul will receive his real status and appropriate attitude for all eternity.

Book of life is in the singular number. It is simply a roll of the names of all the saved people. Doubtless this book will be very voluminous. Does the Holy Ghost now witness to you that your name is written in this book? Here we are informed that all whose names are not found superscribed in this book will be cast into the lake of fire. We are notified that death and hell are also cast into the lake of fire. The Bible tells us that hell is now beneath the surface of the earth. Geology reveals that the entire globe is liquid fire except the solid crust, about forty miles in thickness, which forms the exterior. Hence science fully corroborates the Bible on the location of hell. Since this earth, with its entire environments, is to be completely expurgated from sin and all of its contaminations, we readily see the pertinency in the removal of hell from the earths interior. Our Savior, in His gospels, frequently alludes to the location of the fiery lake in outer darkness. The Greek, To nothos to exooteron; i.e., the darkness which is without. Now where is that darkness containing the lake of fire, into which the devil and all his followers are to be cast? Telescopic observation has revealed one hundred and seventeen millions of suns already discovered in the celestial universe. Evidently our sun gives good light at Neptune, three thousand millions of miles distant. Then to what distance will the combined illumination of one hundred and seventeen millions of suns transmit light? The mathematical genius of an archangel can never answer this question. The distance is absolutely not only inexpressible, but inconceivable. An angel, flying with the velocity of lightning, could not traverse that space in a thousand millions of years. Hence we see the devil and his followers can never return to disturb the peaceful universe of the Almighty. Then how can they ever get there? The Omnipotent arm can transmit them thither in the twinkling of an eye.

Thus you see how the Omnipotent Savior is preparing utterly and eternally to banish sin and all its votaries from the universe of God. While the judgment is in progress, the earth will be passing through a series of purgatorial cremations. (2Pe 3:10.) This world was converted in Noahs time, when it was expurgated of all sinners and baptized with water. That is not sufficient for its admission into heaven. It must receive the second blessing and be baptized with fire. This fiery baptism will thoroughly sanctify it, not only from all sin, actual and original, but from all the effects of sin. The Creator will again resume His work amid these potent fiery agencies, re-create the world, and transform it into a celestial sphere.

Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament

Rev 20:1. I saw an angel come down from heaven, the high sheriff, as it were, with a divine commission, probably the same angel who had descended with glory like a morning star, and unlocked the abyss, out of which a smoke ascended, instigating the Turks to universal war and conquest: chap. 9. Now, he that opened, is sent with plenary powers to shut up, and seal the prison of hell. And if the binding of Satan be better for earth, it will be worse for hell. The kings which have lent their power to support the beast, and burn the martyrs, must bear their punishment there. Archbishop Fenelon says, in his Telemaque, Dans labyme de tenebres on trait surtout avec rigueur les rois, &c. In the abyss of darkness, they treat severely the kings who, instead of being good and vigilant shepherds of the people, have dreamed of nothing but to fleece the flock as devouring wolves.

The mythology of the gentiles, referred to in Job 26:4-5, with one consent fixes hell in the subterranean abodes of darkness. Virgil, who closely follows Homer, says, that in the side of the vast Euboicean rock is cut a cave, where a hundred paths lead to a hundred gates, or caves, whence resound so many voices, which are the responses of the Sibyl.

Excisum Euboc latus ingens rupis in antrum;

Qu lati ducunt aditus centum, ostia centum:

Unde ruunt totidem voces, responsa Sibyll.

neid. 6:42-44.

Rev 20:4. I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, to judge and consider the ways of providence, and the diversified works of God. The promise of our Saviour to the apostles is to the same effect. Mat 19:28. But the thrones and the glory of the first resurrection are assigned to characters the most illustrious in the church of God; characters who have followed the Saviour in the regeneration, who have loved their Master more than life, and who scorned to worship the beast.

Neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands. The Ninevites are said to have branded their slaves in the forehead. It was a practice among many gentile nations to tattoo some part of a slaves body with the name of his master, the soldier with the name of his commander, and the child of an idolater with the name of the idol to which his parents had devoted him. Our sailors often work anchors and other figures in their hands, by punctures which cause soot or gunpowder to enter the skin.

They lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. Here the righteousness of God appears; the lives of the martyrs were shortened on earth, and now they are requited with an earlier resurrection.

Rev 20:6. On such the second death hath no power. The jewish targums expound this of the punishment of the wicked after death.

Rev 20:7. When the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison. That age shall then have its state of probation, as all other ages have had. In the millenium, Isaiah says, as the days of a tree, so are the days of my people, and they shall long enjoy the work of their hands. We have oaks in England, which have braved the winters of seven hundred years.

Rev 20:8. Gog and Magog. This seems not to be the Gog of Ezekiel, but the Gog of the latter day, more severely punished than the others, having sinned against greater light.

Rev 20:11. I saw a great white throne, of which Solomons was but a faint emblem. And him that sat on it, Jehovah, the Christ, the Judge of the living and the dead. There must be a day of final scrutiny; the relation of kings and subjects, of parents and children, of masters and servants, require it. How else can the apparent inequalities of the ways of God be justified to men.

Rev 20:12. I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God. Numerous as the vesicles of vapour which compose the clouds, irradiated by the sun. What a bar, what a tribunal, and what a Judge! And the books were opened. Biography here is written with a partial hand: there it is written with the finger of God. As a man walking over soft ground leaves the print of his feet behind, so our steps shall be traced there, and the portrait be presented to the naked soul. Alas, we have erred and strayed like lost sheep. But another book was opened, which is the book of life, the record of regeneration. May our names be found there, and the fair copy in our own heart.

Rev 20:13. The sea gave up the dead, the countless bodies which were in it; and death, the grave, and hell, or hades, delivered up the dead which were in them. The rabbins say, In hades there are two roads, the one for good men, and the other for the bad. Virgil, respecting tartarus, has precisely the same thought, but he adds, that good men take the right hand road, and bad men the left. Isaiah 14. It must however be noted, that death here signifies more than the grave, as stated on Psa 9:17.

Rev 20:14-15. And death and hell, the spirits or dmons, and the souls of men not registered in the book of life, were cast into the lake of fire. Awful figure, from the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah. No hope that God will overlook a single crime, or spare a single culprit dying in his sins.

Sinner, escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither linger in all the plain. Escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed. Gen 19:17.

REFLECTIONS.

The visions of prophecy here proceed in order. The infidel being slain, the beast and the false prophet being taken alive in the flesh, and sent into the lake, Satans turn is next. An angel, one of the highest servants of Christ, descends from heaven, and arrests the grand enemy of the human kind, and binds him with a chain, and imprisons him for a thousand years. Yes, and when a thief is apprehended, his name and his character are investigated. He is called the dragon on account of his ferocity, and the serpent because of his secret propensity to wickedness. He is called the devil because he is the slanderer, and Satan because he is the adversary of all good men. The throne, Mr. Mede (who here gives us seven folio pages on the millenium) proves to be a continuation of Daniels vision in chap. 7.

The first resurrection is that of the martyrs. Of the thousand years reign I have spoken at large in the general reflections at the end of Isaiah. But there is no positive declaration that Christ shall visibly reign on earth. On the millenium the jews had a constant tradition that the world should continue six thousand years; viz. two thousand under the patriarchs to Abraham, two thousand under the law, and two thousand under the Messiah; and consequently, according to the days of the week, the sabbatical thousand years should follow: for a day with the Lord is as a thousand years. So St. Peter and St. Barnabas both quote the text.

Gog and Magog, whether infidels, apostates, or what else, are sufficient tests to us that all ages of the world shall have their trials, and their difficulties. Hence people in my judgment set the millenium much too high. When wickedness shall abate, God will abate the calamities of men, and multiply their temporal and spiritual good.

The day of judgment, the last and great day follows next. The Lord Christ shall sit on his white throne of spotless purity. The judge of men is the God-man, who was himself tempted as man. The dead, small and great, the prince and the peasant, shall stand in order at the great tribunal. The husband and the wife, the master and the servant, the child and the parent shall be there, and tried in the presence of one another. Yea, and the books of conscience shall be opened, and nothing forgotten, nothing covered, nothing disguised. Oh what a day of naked simplicity, and what a day of disclosure of secret things! Oh what a day for the study of providence, and for tracing the wisdom and righteousness of God! In those books our sins will be fairly recorded, and we shall be found guilty. We shall be weighed and found wanting. Happy that another book is opened, which is the book of life. Happy to have our name erased from the records of death, and enrolled by regeneration among the living.

Death and hell, thanatos and hades, all who were found in their sins, or had died in their sins, were cast into the lake burning with fire and brimstone. And oh may gehenna, unfolding its jaws, affright my soul from every sin, and awe me to keep in the good way. As God is graciously pleased to encourage repentance by promising to remember our sins no more, let us make a covenant, but not in our own strength, that we will sin no more against his forbearance and love. So shall we have boldness in this great day, and sit on thrones at his right hand.

Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Rev 20:1-6. The Establishment of the Millennium.

Rev 20:1. key of the abyss: Rev 9:1*.chain: i.e. manacle or handcuff.

Rev 20:2. dragon: Rev 12:3*.

Rev 20:4. thrones: the imagery is suggested by Dan 7:9.they sat: the subject of the sentence is omitted, and we do not know who are here denominated as judges; probably, however, the saints and martyrs referred to in the subsequent verses (cf. 1Co 6:2).the beast: i.e. the Emperor.mark: Rev 13:16*.they lived and reigned: there is no definite statement in the passage as to whether the reign was in heaven or on earth.

Rev 20:5. The rest of the dead: only the martyrs were raised from the dead; other Christians were apparently still in the sleep of death. This conception contradicts the teaching of Paul, who definitely states that to be absent from the body is to be at home with the Lord (2Co 5:8).first resurrection: these words must be taken literally and not spiritualised. According to Rev. the first resurrection was confined to the martyrs.second death: cf. Rev 20:14.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

Satan Bound for 1000 years

Though the Beast and the False Prophet have been (in Rev 19:1-21) consigned to the Lake of Fire, the wicked spirit Satan who influenced them is not immediately sent there. Rather an angel (not the Lord) is delegated to take Satan captive and to secure him in the pit of “the abyss” for the specified time of one thousand years (vv. 1-3). A seal is set upon him: there is no possibility of escape. The object of this limited imprisonment is that he might not deceive the nations for a thousand years. “After that he must be loosed a little season.”

Of course the great wisdom of God is in this. While this thousand years will be a time of unparalleled peace and blessing on earth for mankind, with the Lord of glory establishing peace on earth and reigning from heaven (v. 4), yet sin will still be present. There will be great numbers at the end of the millennial reign who are not born of God. Some will have entered the Millennium unregenerate, for Psa 18:43-45 (J.N.D.) speaks of strangers coming cringing to Messiah, obeying Him because of fear, not faith. Great numbers also born during that time will not bow the heart to the Lord Jesus, though outwardly subject because circumstances of every kind will be pleasant and favorable (Isa 65:17-25). The loosing of Satan at the end will serve to manifest what is really in their hearts.

The First Resurrection Completed

(Three Distinct Groups)

Another sight attracts John’s attention (v. 4), this time clearly in heaven, for thrones are seen along with those raised to live and reign with Christ. First there is a company who sit upon thrones, with judgment (administrative rule) given them. These are manifestly the elders whom we have before seen enthroned (Rev 4:4) as representing all saints of the Old and New Testaments who were raptured at the Lord’s coming just before the beginning of the Tribulation Period.

A second company is comprised of those who had been martyred for the witness of Jesus and for the Word of God during the first half of the Tribulation Period. That company was seen in Rev 6:9-11 (though possibly at that time not yet complete). A third company is comprised of those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and therefore martyred during the last half of the Tribulation (Rev 13:15). These are all raised from the dead.

While these three companies are distinguished, they are linked together as living and reigning with Christ (in heaven, of course) for a thousand years. This therefore includes all of those who at this future time have been raised from death as well as the living taken at the Rapture. The rest of the dead will not be raised until the end of the thousand years (v. 5). They will have their part in the second resurrection-a resurrection to damnation or judgment (Joh 5:29). Referring to verse 4 the declaration is made, “This is the first resurrection: ” it will be complete when the martyrs are raised at the end of the Tribulation, but of course it includes all who have been raised before. Thus the first resurrection includes all true believers who have left this world. Christ was the firstfruits of the first resurrection, then all who are His at His coming (1Co 15:23). “His coming” here embraces both aspects of it, the Rapture and His Appearing.

Those who have part in the first resurrection are blessed and holy (v. 6): their happiness is complete and they are set apart for God’s glory for eternity. The second death (eternal separation from God) has no effect whatever in regard to them, but it will in regard to all who are raised in the second resurrection to judgment. The first or physical death is separation of the spirit and soul from the body. The second death is eternal separation of the unsaved (though physically resurrected) from God under His judgment in hell, the Lake of Fire. All of those in the first resurrection are said to be priests of God and of Christ, though not all are of the Bride, the Lamb’s wife. Many Old Testament scriptures speak of the blessedness of the thousand years’ reign of righteousness. A few samples of this are: Psa 21:1-6; Psa 24:1-10; Psa 36:5-9; Psa 96:1-13; Psa 98:1-9 and Isa 11:1-10; Isa 12:1-6. But these wonderful things are not mentioned here in Revelation.

Satan Loosed: His Last Effort of Rebellion

The thousand years will prove the faithfulness and goodness of God to His creation in every public way. There will be no cause of complaint. Yet at the end of this, Satan will be loosed from his prison (v. 7). Immediately he resumes his deceiving tactics (v. 8). It seems hard to imagine that people then will become so grossly unreasoning as to receive his false witness against a God who had proven His unfailing goodness toward them. But unrenewed mankind hates authority, no matter how good and considerate. All the unbelieving world blindly accepts Satan’s authority which leads them to a final earthly destruction. God allows Satan’s activity to expose what is in their hearts, and earth is cleansed of the last unbeliever.

When Satan is loosed and allowed to again deceive the nations, the number of those revolting against God is astonishing. They come from every direction of the earth (vv. 8-9). They are characterized as “Gog and Magog.” In Eze 38:1-23; Eze 39:1-29 we also read of Gog and Magog, but in a different connection, for there they come from “the far north” (Eze 38:6; Eze 38:15) and are addressed as “the prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal” (Eze 38:3). Of course the furthest north nation today is Russia. This great northern attack, (with the help of Persia, Ethiopia, Put, Gomer and Beth-togarmah) will take place at the beginning of the Millennial reign, when they attack “a land that is brought back from the sword” (v. 8)-Israel,-but will fall on the mountains of Israel. The King of the North comes from immediately north of Israel. Gog and Magog is from the far north.

This second “Gog and Magog” embraces far more than the first, for its forces come from every quarter of the world. Its name denotes its atheistic character, just as it does in the former attack, but now affecting a far larger territory. Gog means “to surmount” or “to top” while Magog means “to overtop.” This reminds us of Agag, king of Amalek (1Sa 15:32-33), meaning “I will overtop,” for it involves the pride of people always seeking to dethrone God so that they may rule.

God allows them to come so far as to surround the city of Jerusalem (v. 9), for He will wait until they are congregated there with their full show of united force before the awesome judgment of fire from God out of heaven falls on them in sudden, devastating destruction. There is no indication of Israelites being involved in this rebellion, for they then will be a nation born of God, with Jerusalem called “the beloved city.” Because that city will represent God in His dealings with the earth, it will be made the object of attack. This will be the last attempt by mankind, energized by Satan, to seek to overthrow the authority of God. If not born again, people refuse to learn, though surrounded by innumerable witnesses. This attack will not be simply against the Son of Man, but directly against God: therefore it is appropriate that the judgment of fire is from God out of heaven.

At this time (not at the Great White Throne) the devil who had led this senseless revolt, comes to the end of his history of wicked deception. God has allowed the evil of his character to serve God’s great purposes of truth and faithfulness, but Satan’s long history only confirms his stubborn, unbending hatred against God. He is assigned to the Lake of Fire with its eternal, incessant torment, which he and the Beast and the False Prophet share (v. 10). It seems likely that at this time also the devil’s fallen angels receive the same doom (Isa 24:21), for we know that this everlasting fire is prepared for the devil and his angels (Mat 25:41). However, the time they are consigned there is not specifically stated.

The Great White Throne

Following this, the Great White Throne is set, awesome in its pure, spotless magnificence (v. 11). He who sits on it is the Son of God, the Son of Man, for the Father has committed all judgment to the Son (Joh 5:22). The earth and the heavens flee from the glory of His face.This appears to be the fulfillment of 2Pe 3:10, the earth and the heaven passing away by a fire of great heat. Nothing is said as to how the godly who lived through the Millennium will be preserved, but it is likely that their bodies will be changed at that time, and that they will be present to witness the Great White Throne judgment, as will the heavenly saints, for John represents them all when he says, “I saw a Great White Throne” (v. 11). It seems evident that this stupendous event will call for the witness of all creation. The heaven here spoken of is the firmament (the sky) that surrounds the earth, not “the heaven of heavens” (Deu 10:14 -KJV) or “the third heaven” (2Co 12:2).

The dead small and great stand before the throne (v. 12). They formerly were physically dead and remain spiritually dead. Their physical resurrection is not mentioned here, but verse 5 has already referred to that and Joh 5:29 speaks of “the resurrection of judgment” which obviously refers to this final, individual judgment of the Great White Throne. In what character of body the unsaved are raised we are not told, but since it is the things done in the body that must be brought to account (2Co 5:10), then it is in their literal body that people will receive their judgment.

The books are opened, for in these are recorded all the works of all who stand there. No believer will be among them, for all believers who ever die will have been raised in the first resurrection. The book of life also is opened to confirm that the names of all who stand there are not written in it. They are all judged according to their works. This being the case, there is no possibility of their escaping the Lake of Fire. They have depended on their works to save them, but those works can only condemn them. Their works will not all have been the same, and the judgment will be perfectly just. Luk 12:47-48 shows that some will receive many stripes in the way of punishment, others fewer. The degree of guilt will determine the degree of punishment, but the place and duration of punishment is the same for every unbeliever. They were before under condemnation, having not believed in the Son of God (Joh 3:18). Now sentence is carried out.

While this chapter shows that all who stand before the Great White Throne will be judged according to their works, Joh 5:24 is very clear that believers will not come into judgment: Christ has borne the judgment for them in His sacrifice of Calvary (1Pe 2:24). Their works, however, will be judged at the Judgment Seat of Christ (1Co 3:13-15) with rewards given for everything done for God’s glory, while works to the contrary will be burned up.

On the other hand the ungodly have refused the Son of God whose sacrifice is the only atonement for human guilt. Therefore they themselves must bear the judgment that their sins deserve. Nothing is missed. Things they had hoped were forgotten will face them in all the horror of their character of rebellion against the living God.

The sea giving up the dead (v. 13) involves millions who perished in the flood of Noah, thousands who have drowned in maritime disasters, and even those whose bodies were cremated and their ashes consigned to the sea in an attempt to hide from God. God knows where to find the physical remains of all. Those in death and hades are not a separate company, but include all who have died unregenerate. Death is the physical state of the body while hades (meaning “the unseen”) is the state of the spirit and soul as separated from the body. By resurrection they are brought out of those two conditions of death and hades.

Death and hades are said to be cast into the Lake of Fire, indicating that there will be no more separating of the soul and spirit from the body. The second resurrection has ended these conditions. Yet consignment to the Lake of Fire is called “the second death.” It is not a physical separation of the spirit from the body, but a most solemn separation of the entire person from God, and as verse 10 has shown, it means “torment day and night forever and ever.”

Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible

Verse 1

A great chain; such as was used for the confinement of prisoners.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

(20: 1-3) We have seen the fearful climax of evil to which Christendom of to-day is heading, when the nations under the rulers of these Western lands will be gathered together in open revolt against Christ and the armies of heaven. We have seen, too, the awful doom that awaits the leaders and their armies, and thus, with all the assurance of God’s word, we learn the solemn crisis that awaits the world around us. But there remains the arch enemy of God and man, of Christ and His saints. Now we are told who he is and how he will be deprived of all his power. We are reminded that this enemy is that fallen being, “that old serpent,” who from the beginning of the world’s history, and throughout the ages, has been the active source of all rebellion against God. As the serpent he has, from the beginning, been the seducer of man; as Satan he has been the adversary of man; as the devil he has ever been the accuser of the saints; and as the Dragon he has wielded his power in seeking the destruction of men.

At the appearing of Christ an angel from heaven will, under the symbols of the key and the chain, bind his power and confine him in the bottomless pit, and thus rid the earth of his presence during the thousand years’ reign of Christ.

In Revelation 12 we have learned that he will be cast out of heaven “into the earth,” and now we learn that he will be cast from earth “into the bottomless pit,” to be loosed for a little season when the millennium is fulfilled, before receiving his final doom in the lake of fire.

18 The Millennium (Rev 20:4-15)

We have learned from the visions seen by the apostle that the leaders, together with their followers, in the final rebellion of apostate Christendom, will come under summary judgment at the appearing of Christ as King of kings and Lord of lords.

(V. 4) Now we learn, from the visions that follow, that “the armies which were in heaven” (Rev 19:14), and that followed the King of kings are invested with judicial authority. Are we not to distinguish in these armies three classes of saints? Firstly, there is the church, together with the Old Testament saints. Already we have seen these saints represented under the figure of elders as surrounding the throne in heaven and intelligent in the mind of God (Rev. 4, 5); then we have seen them presented as the bride and guests at the marriage of the Lamb, for the satisfaction of the heart of Christ (Rev. 19); now we see them as forming part of the armies that follow the Lord out of heaven to be associated with Him in His reign.

Secondly, John sees the resurrection of those who had suffered martyrdom on account of their witness of Jesus, and their faithfulness to the word of God, and who, in the days of the fifth seal, had cried to God, saying, “How long, O Holy and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on those that dwell on the earth?” They were told to rest yet a little season. That season is over, and the answer to their cry is come, for they are raised to have a glorious reward for all their sufferings, by being associated with Christ in the blessings of His reign.

Thirdly, we hear of those saints who had suffered under the reign of the beast, for refusing to worship him or receive his mark. They, too, will live and reign with Christ a thousand years.

(Vv. 5, 6) The raising of these saints completes the first resurrection. The first resurrection does not signify that all that have part in it are raised at the same moment. Christ’s resurrection was the first fruits (1Co 15:23); then follows the resurrection of Old Testament saints, and those who have fallen asleep during the present period, at the time of the rapture (1Th 4:16-17); and finally the resurrection of the saints at the appearing of Christ, who have died or suffered martyrdom during the period between the rapture and the appearing.

It is clear that the expression “the first resurrection” includes Christ and His saints, and blessed and holy are those who have part in this first resurrection. On such the second death – that final separation between God and the soul – will have no power. The unregenerate will alone have part in the final resurrection at the close of the millennial reign.

(Vv. 7-10) In these verses we are carried to the end of the glorious reign of Christ, to learn that at the end of the thousand years there awaits one final test for man. It seems no part of the purpose of God in the Revelation to describe the blessedness of the millennium. This has already been done in many passages of infinite beauty in Psalms and Prophets of the Old Testament. Here we are taken to the end of the reign of Christ to learn that the flesh never alters. Before the flood men filled the earth with violence and corruption. Under law, man transgressed and fell into idolatry; under grace men utterly reject God’s offer of salvation and Christendom becomes apostate. At last, under the reign of Christ in righteousness, it will be found that the instant Satan is loosed “for a little season,” the nations will be deceived and gathered together under his leading to oppose Christ and His saints. It has been truly said, “Such is man, and such is Satan. A thousand years’ confinement in the bottomless pit has not changed the character of the deceiver. A thousand years’ blessedness under Christ’s rule has not changed the nature which greedily listens to the deceiver’s voice.” There will indeed be the saints, and the beloved city, true to the Lord, but the mass of men will be found in opposition to Christ and His own, for men will be gathered from the four quarters of the earth, and their numbers as the sand of the sea.

The names Gog and Magog would seem to be used as symbols, borrowed from the Prophet Ezekiel, to represent the hatred and opposition of the world to Christ and His people. In Ezekiel Gog is a literal person, the chief prince of the vast region to the north of Palestine and known in our day as the Empire of Russia.

The issue of this last conflict will not, for a moment, be in uncertainty, as in the conflicts of men. The destruction of these rebels will be instantaneous and overwhelming. Fire from God, out of heaven, will devour them, and Satan, the leader in this last rebellion, will enter upon his final doom in the lake of fire, where already the beast and the false prophet are confined, there to “be tormented day and night for ever and ever.”

(Vv. 11-15) Another scene of intense solemnity follows – the judgment of the “great white throne.” This surely takes place in eternity, for we read, “the earth and the heaven fled away.” The present order of creation disappears to prepare the way for a new creation. There is “found no place” for the present “earth and the heaven” in which man has sought to gratify his pride and magnify himself by founding mighty empires and building great cities, enriched and adorned with all that human skill can devise.

But if the scenes in which man’s pride has been set forth and his rebellion against God expressed, for ever pass away, we learn that man, himself, remains to answer to God for his rebellion and receive the just reward of his deeds. Thus we learn that the time will come when “the dead small and great” will stand before the throne of judgment.

The figure of the two books would seem to set forth, on the one hand, that the record of all the works of man are known to God, and on the other hand, that God has kept a record of the names of those ordained to life. At this solemn judgment men will be judged, not only on account of their evil works, but because they have rejected Christ and His work (whereby their sins could have been for ever put away) as manifested by the solemn fact that their names are absent from the book of life

In this solemn scene we are permitted to see the end of all evil and the final doom of every enemy of God, both small and great. The devil is “cast into the lake of fire.” Death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. “Whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”

Fuente: Smith’s Writings on 24 Books of the Bible

20:1 And {1} I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key {2} of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.

(1) Now follows the third part of the prophetic history, which is of the victory by which Christ overcame the dragon, as I noted in Rev 7:1 . This part must necessarily be joined with the end of the twelfth chapter and be applied to the correct understanding of it. This chapter has two parts, one of the dragon overcome, to Rev 20:2-10 : the other of the resurrection and last judgment to Rev 20:11-15 . The story of the dragon is twofold: First of the first victory, after which he was bound by Christ, to the sixth verse Rev 20:1-6 . The second is of the last victory, by which he has thrown down into everlasting punishment, there to the fifteenth verse Rev 20:7-15 . This first history happened in the first time of the Christian Church, when the dragon thrown down from heaven by Christ, went about to molest the new birth of the Church in the earth, Rev 12:17; Rev 18:1 . For which cause I gave warning, that this story of the dragon must be joined to that passage.

(2) That is, of hell, where God threw the angels who had sinned, and bound them in chains of darkness to be kept till damnation, 2Pe 2:4

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

1. The binding of Satan 20:1-3

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

The first word, "And," supports the idea of chronological sequence. It implies a continuation from what John just revealed (cf. Rev 19:11; Rev 19:17; Rev 19:19; Rev 20:4; Rev 20:11-12; Rev 21:1-2; Rev 21:22). Amillennial interpreters disagree. [Note: Beale, pp. 974-83.]

"John says nothing to place this chapter in the time sequence." [Note: Morris, p. 235. Jack Deere answered this objection very effectively in "Premillennialism in Revelation 20:4-6," Bibliotheca Sacra 135:537 (January-March 1978):60-62. Thomas, Revelation 8-22, pp. 404-5, is also helpful here.]

It is logical that having judged the beast and the false prophet (Rev 19:20) Jesus Christ should next deal with Satan. God assigned an angel to bind Satan. Previously God cast Satan out of heaven (Rev 12:9), and now He cast him out of the earth. This is the end of Satan’s "short time" in which God allowed him to spread havoc on the earth (Rev 12:12). This angel now has the key to the abyss (cf. Rev 9:1-2; Rev 9:11; Rev 11:7; Rev 17:8; Luk 8:31; Rom 10:7). The binding of Satan is real, though the chain must be figurative since it is impossible to bind spirit beings with physical chains (cf. Rev 9:14). Though Jesus Christ defeated Satan at the Cross (Luk 10:18; Joh 12:31; Joh 16:11), He did not bind him then nor will He bind him until the beginning of the Millennium. Presently Satan has considerable freedom to attack God’s people and oppose His work (cf. Rev 2:13; Rev 3:9; Eph 2:2; Eph 6:10-18; 1Pe 5:8).

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

CHAPTER XVI.

JUDGMENT OF SATAN AND OF THE WICKED.

Rev 20:1-15.

IN now approaching chap. 20, with its yet unsolved difficulties of interpretation, it is of essential importance to observe, in the first place, the relation of the chapter to what immediately precedes. The Seer is not entering upon an entirely new subject. He distinctly continues, on the contrary, the prosecution of a theme he had before begun. In the previous portion of his book three great enemies of the saints of God had been introduced to us, the dragon or the devil, the beast, and the false prophet. These were the main opponents of the Lamb, in one way or another stirring up all the efforts that had been made against Him by the kings of the earth, their armies, and their followers. For a time they had appeared to succeed. They had persecuted the saints, had compelled them to flee, had overcome them, and killed them. This, however, could not continue; and it was to be shown that the final triumph remains with those who have suffered for the sake of righteousness. In chap. 19, we have the beginning, but not the close, of this triumph. Of the three great enemies only two – the beast and the false prophet – perish in that chapter. The destruction of the third is reserved for chap. 20, and is effected at the tenth verse of the chapter. The verses following then describe the judgment of those who had listened to these enemies, but who, though defeated, or even killed,1 or devoured by fire out of heaven when in their service,2 had not yet been consigned to their doom. Thereafter nothing remains, in order to complete the triumph of Christ and His saints, but that death and Hades shall also be removed from the scene and cast into the lake of fire. (1 Rev 19:21; 2 Rev 20:9)

These considerations are of themselves sufficient to show that the overthrow of Satan, and not the reign of a thousand years, is the main theme of the first ten verses of the chapter. So far is the latter from being the culminating point of the whole book, that it is not even introduced at the beginning of any new and important section. It starts no new series of visions. It comes in, in the midst of a section devoted to an entirely different matter: –

“And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, the old serpent, which is the devil, and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and cast him into the abyss, and shut it, and sealed it over him, that he should deceive the nations no more, until the thousand years should be finished: after this he must be loosed for a little time. And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God, and such as worshipped not the beast, neither his image, and received not the mark upon their forehead and upon their hand; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. The rest of the dead Lived not until the thousand years should be finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: over these the second death hath no authority, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years. And when the thousand years are finished, Satan than be loosed out of his prison, and shall come forth to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to the war: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up over the breadth of the earth, and com passed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fare and brimstone, where arc also the beast and the false prophet; and they shall be tormented day and night forever and ever (Rev 20:1-10).”

It is impossible within the limits of a commentary such as the present to discuss the different interpretations that have been given to a passage so difficult and so much controverted as the above. Nothing more can be attempted than to state briefly what seems to be the true meaning of the sacred writer, together with the grounds upon which the interpretation to be suggested rests.

The fundamental principle of that interpretation, to be kept clearly and resolutely in view, is this: that the thousand years mentioned in the passage express no period of time. They are not a figure for the whole Christian era, now extending to nearly nineteen hundred years. Nor do they denote a certain space of time, longer or shorter, it may be, than the definite number of years spoken of, at the close of the present dispensation, and to be in the view of some preceded, in the view of others followed, by the second Advent of our Lord, They embody an idea; and that idea, whether applied to the subjugation of Satan or to the triumph of the saints, is the idea of completeness or perfection. Satan is bound for a thousand years; that is, he is completely bound. The saints reign for a thousand years; that is, they are introduced into a state of perfect and glorious victory. Before endeavoring to bring out this thought more fully, several preliminary considerations may be noticed.

1. Years may be understood in this sense. In Eze 39:9 it is said that the inhabitants of the cities of Israel shall .prevail against the enemies described, and “shall go forth, and shall make fires of the weapons and burn them, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the hand-staves, and the spears, and they shall make fires of them seven years.” No one can suppose that the “seven years” here spoken of are to be literally understood, or even that the length of time which would be needed to burn the weapons is the thought upon which the prophet dwells. His meaning, in correspondence with the use of the number seven, can only be that these weapons shall be destroyed with a great and complete destruction. Again, in the same chapter, at: Eze 39:12, after the defeat of “Gog and all his multitude,” it is said, “And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may cleanse the land.” A literal interpretation is here not less impossible than in the case of the burning of the weapons; nor can the meaning be exhausted by the thought that a long time would be necessary for the burying. The number “seven” must have its due force assigned to it, and the prophet can only mean that the land should be thoroughly cleansed from heathen impurity. The use of the term “years” in the vision before us seems to be exactly similar; and the probability that it is so rises almost to certainty when we observe that, as proved by the vision of Gog and Magog in the subsequent part of the chapter, the prophecy of Ezekiel is before the Seers eye, and that it constitutes the foundation upon which his whole delineation rests.

The only difficulty connected with this view is that in the third verse of the chapter Satan is said to have been shut into the abyss until the thousand years should be finished, and that in the seventh verse we read, And when the thousand years are finished, Satan shall be loosed. But the difficulty is more specious than real. Let us familiarize ourselves with the thought that the thousand years may simply express completeness, thoroughness, either of defeat or victory; let us remember that the Seer had represented the defeat of Satan by the figure of being bound for a thousand years; finally, let us notice, as we have yet to see more fully, that Satan, although deprived of power over the righteous, is still to be the deceiver and ruler of the wicked: and it immediately follows that this latter thought could find no more appropriate form than in the statement that the deception took place, not “until,” or “after,” the thousand years should be finished. This is simply the carrying out of the symbolism already employed. To revert for a moment to the symbolism of Ezekiel, let us suppose that, after the prophet had described the burning of the weapons for “seven years,” he had wished to mention also some other step by which the burning was to be followed. What more suitable words could he have used than that it took place either “after this,” or “after the seven years were finished”? In point of fact, this is exactly what the prophet does. He has occasion to refer to further efforts made to secure the purity of the land; and the words employed by him are, “After the end of seven months shall they search.”* The one expression is no more than the natural con sequence of the other. (* Eze 39:14)

2. What is the meaning of the last words of the third verse of the chapter, – He (i.e., Satan) must be loosed for a little time? What is this “little time”? The words take us directly to that conception of the Christian age which is so intimately interwoven with the structure of the Apocalypse, and even of the whole New Testament, – that it is all “a little time.” This is particularly apparent in the application of the very same words to the souls under the altar in Rev 6:11 : “And it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little time, until their fellow-servants also and their brethren, which should be killed even as they were, should be fulfilled.” The “little time” there is undeniably that extending from the moment of the vision to the close of the present dispensation. But, if it be so there, we are entitled to suppose that the very same expression, when used in the passage before us, will be used in the same sense; and that, when it is said Satan shall be loosed “for a little time,” the meaning is that he shall be loosed for the whole Christian age. Again, in Rev 12:12 we read, “The devil is gone down unto you, having great wrath, knowing that he hath but a short time.” The “short time” here referred to begins with the casting down of the devil out of heaven into the earth spoken of in the ninth verse of the same chapter. It must therefore include the whole period of his action in this world; and the manner in which that period is designated corresponds closely with the description of the time during which he is said, in chap. 20, to be loosed. Again, in Rev 10:6 the angel swears that there shall be “time” no longer, using the same word for time that we meet with in the verse now under consideration; so that it would appear as if to the author of the Apocalypse the word “time” were a kind of technical term by which he was accustomed to denote the period of the Church s probation in this world. Lastly, this conclusion is powerfully confirmed by the many passages of the Apocalypse in which it is clear that the Christian dispensation, from its beginning to its end, is looked upon as a “very little while,” as hastening to its final issue, and as about to be closed by One who cometh quickly.* The “little time,” therefore, of the present chapter during which Satan is loosed, and which, when more fully dwelt upon, is the time of the war spoken of in Rev 20:7-9, is the historical period of the Christian dispensation, during which Satan is permitted to deceive the nations and to lead them against the camp of the saints and the beloved city. It is, in short, the time between the first and second coming of our Lord. The period so often sought in the thousand years of Rev 20:2 is really to be found in the “little time” of Rev 20:3. (* Rev 1:3; Rev 2:16; Rev 3:20; Rev 22:20, etc., 1Co 7:29; Heb 10:37)

3. Attention ought to be particularly directed to the condition of the saints during the thousand years spoken of. It is described in general terms as a first resurrection. Certain words of our Lord in the Gospel of St. John throw important light upon the meaning of this expression: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour cometh, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that have heard shall live,”1 and, again, a little later in the same discourse, “Marvel not at this: for the hour cometh, in which all that are in the tombs shall hear His voice, and shall come forth.”2 Let us compare these two verses with one another, and the presence of the clause “and now is” in the first, taken along with its omission in the second, leaves no doubt as to the principle on which they are to be interpreted. The first refers to a spiritual, the second to a bodily, resurrection. Here then in the words of our Lord Himself we have the source whence the idea of the “first resurrection” of the Apocalypse is derived. It is not an actual resurrection from the grave, although that resurrection is potentially involved in it. It is a spiritual resurrection in an hour “that now is;” and the fact that this is St Johns meaning is brought out still more clearly by the intimation that what he saw was souls, whose resurrection bodies had not yet been given them.3 (1 Joh 5:25; 2 Joh 5:28; 3Comp. Rev 6:9)

The condition of the saints thought of in this vision is described, however, not only generally, but in various particulars, all of which, it will be seen, correspond with the apocalyptic idea of it even in a present world. And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them. But we have been already told that “they reign over the earth.”1 Judgment was given unto them, words which seem best understood in the sense, so peculiar to St. John, that for believers there is in the ordinary sense of the term no judgment. As they have passed through death, so also they have passed through judgment.2 They lived with Christ. But Christ Himself had said in the Gospel, “Because I live, and ye shall live.”3 They reigned with Christ. But that is only another method of saying that they sat on thrones, with the added conception, so often associated with the word in the Apocalypse, that their enemies were bruised beneath their feet. Over these the second death hath no authority. But we have before been told of “him that over-cometh” that he shall not be hurt of the second death.”4 Finally, they shall be priests of God and of Christ. But it is needless to dwell upon the fact that from the opening of this book such has always been spoken of as the position of believers. (1 Rev 5:10; 2Comp. the teaching of our Lord in Joh 11:25-26; Joh 5:24; 3 Joh 14:19 {margin of R.V.}; 4 Rev 2:11)

Nothing, in short, is said of the saints of God in this picture of millennial bliss that does not find a parallel in what the Seer has elsewhere written of their present life. On not a few different occasions their ideal condition in this world is set forth in as glowing terms as is their thousand years glory and joy.

One expression may indeed startle us. What the Seer beheld is said to have been the souls of them that had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God. Is the word “beheaded” to be literally understood? Then a very small number of martyrs can be thought of. The great majority of those who have died for the faith of Jesus have been martyred in other and more dreadful ways. The word is the counterpart of “slaughtered” in the vision of the souls under the altar.* These were the saints of the Old Testament, whose death is described by a term characteristic to the Jewish mind of the mode in which offerings were presented to God. When the Seer passes to the thought of the great Gentile Church, he uses a term more appropriate to the Gentile method of terminating human life. “Beheaded” therefore expresses the same thing as “slaughtered.” Both words refer to martyrdom; and both include all faithful ones in the dispensations to which they respectively belong, for in the eyes of St. John all the disciples of a martyred Lord are martyrs. (* Rev 6:9)

4. The meaning of the doom inflicted upon Satan demands our notice. And the angel laid hold on the dragon, the old serpent, which is the devil, and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and cast him into the abyss, and shut it, and sealed it over him. It is hardly possible to read these words, at the same time remembering St. Johns love of contrast or even travesty, and not to see in them a mocking counterpart of the death and burial of Jesus, when the stone was rolled to the door of the sepulchre and sealed. If so, it is not enough to say that by the infliction of this doom the power of Satan was restrained, and his influence lessened. Much more must be implied; and the language can only mean that, in one sense or another, Satan was rendered powerless and harmless, as unable to act his part as though he had been laid in the grave.

5. The use of numbers in the Apocalypse ought to be remembered. These numbers are invariably symbolical; and, if the number a thousand is to be here interpreted literally, it seems in that respect to stand alone. Nor is it a reply to this to say that, though not in the strict sense literal, it may signify a period of indefinite length. Such an interpretation would be not less opposed than the former to the genius and spirit of this book. The numbers of the Apocalypse have always a definite meaning. They express ideas, but the ideas are distinct They may belong to a region of thought different from that with which arithmetical numbers are concerned, but within that region we cannot change their value without at the same time changing the thought. We are not to imagine that numbers, in the allegorical or spiritual use made of them by the Jews, might be tossed about at their pleasure or shuffled like a pack of cards. They were a language; and the bond between them and the ideas that they involved was quite as close as it is between the words of ordinary speech and the speakers thoughts. A thousand years cannot mean two, or ten, or twenty, or three hundred and sixty-five thousand years according as we please. If they are a measure of time, the measure must be fixed; and we ought to be able to explain the principle leading us to attach to the number one thousand a value different from that which it naturally possesses.

6. The teaching of Scripture elsewhere upon this subject has to be considered. Upon this point it is unnecessary to say much, for the difference between that teaching and any view commonly taken of the thousand years reign is acknowledged. It ought to be observed, however, that this difference is not merely negative, as if the rest of the New Testament simply failed to fill in certain details of events more largely described in the Apocalypse, but upon the whole substantially the same. The difference is also positive, and in some respects irreconcilable with what we are taught by the other sacred writers. The New Testament, unless this passage be an exception, always brings the Parousia and the general judgment into the closest possible connection. It nowhere interposes a lengthened period between the resurrection of believers and that of unbelievers. It knows only of one, and that a general, resurrection; and the passages, such as 1Co 15:23-24, and 1Th 4:16-17, usually quoted to support another conclusion, fail when correctly interpreted to do so. When our Lord comes again, He at once perfects the happiness of His saints and makes all His enemies His footstool.1 One text alone may be quoted upon this point While the “first resurrection” is assigned to a date a thousand or even thousands of years before the end, it is several times repeated in the discourse of Jesus in the sixth chapter of St. John that the resurrection of believers takes place at the “last day.”2 (1 Mat 25:31-46; Rom 2:5; Rom 2:7; 1Th 4:17; 2Th 1:7-10; 2 Joh 6:39-40; Joh 6:44)

7. One other consideration may be kept in view. It would appear that about the time of the Advent of our Lord there was a widely extended opinion among the Jews, traces of which are also to be found among the Gentiles, that a golden age of a thousand years duration might be anticipated in the future as a happy close to all the sins and miseries of the world.1 Here, it is sometimes urged, is the source of the apocalyptic figure of this chapter, which thus becomes only one of the wild chiliastic expectations of the time. But, even if it be allowed that St. John drew the particular figure employed by him from a general belief of his age, it by no means follows that he accepted the literal interpretation of that belief as the reality and substance of prophetic hope. In many a passage of his book he has undeniably spiritualized hopes of Israel founded on the language of the Old Testament in its outward form. He might easily do the same with what he recognized as a belief, not less widely spread and not less deeply seated in both the Jewish and Gentile portions of the Church. To use the language of the late Archdeacon Lee, “a world-wide belief such as this naturally supplied St. John with symbols and with language wherein to clothe his revelation of the fortunes of the Church, just as he has employed for the same purpose the details of the theocracy, or the imagery of war, or the phenomena and the convulsions of nature.”2 In all such cases the determination of the point at issue really rests upon our view of the general tone of the writing in which the difficulty occurs, and on our perception of what will give the unity and harmony to his words for which every intelligent writer is entitled to expect credit at his readers hands. This conclusion is in the present instance strengthened by the fact that St. John did not confine himself to the traditional belief he is said to have adopted. So far from doing so, he occupies himself chiefly with a picture of that overthrow of Satan which seems to have been no part of the belief, and the mould of which is taken from entirely different sources. (1See authorities in Lee (Speakers Commentary) on Rev 20:2, and his excursus on that chapter; 2 Speakers Commentary, u.s.)

Putting together the different considerations now adduced, we can have but little difficulty in understanding either the binding of Satan or the reign of the saints for a thousand years. The vision describes no period of blessedness to be enjoyed by the Church at the close of the present dispensation. Alike negatively and positively we have simply an ideal picture of results effected by the Redeemer for His people, when for them He lived, and suffered, and died, and rose again. Thus He bound Satan for them; He cast him into the abyss; He shut him in; He sealed the abyss over him, – so that against them he can effect nothing. He is a bruised and conquered foe. He may war against them, afflict them, persecute them, kill them, but their true life is beyond his reach. Already they live a resurrection and ascended life, for it is a life hid with Christ in God, a life in that “heaven” from which the devil has been finally and forever expelled. They rest upon, they live in, a risen and glorified Redeemer; and, whatever be the age, or country, or circumstances in which their lot is cast, they sit with their Lord in the heavenly places and share His victory. He has been always triumphant, and in His triumph His people even now have part. The glory which the Father gave the Son the Son has given them.1 They cannot sin, because they are begotten of God.2 He that was begotten of God keepeth them, and the evil one toucheth them not.3 This is the reign of a thousand years, and it is the portion of every believer who in any age of the Church shares the life of his risen and exalted Lord. (1 Joh 17:22; 2 1Jn 3:9; 3 1Jn 5:18)

Thus also we may comprehend what is meant by the loosing of Satan. There is no point in the future at which he is to be loosed. He has been already loosed. Hardly was he completely conquered for the saints before he was loosed for the world. He was loosed as a great adversary who, however he may persecute the children of God, cannot touch their inner life, and who can only “deceive the nations,” – the nations that have despised and rejected Christ He has never been really absent from the earth. He has gone about continually, “knowing that he hath but a short time.”* But he is unable to hurt those who are kept in the hollow of the Lords hand. No doubt he tries it. That is the meaning of the description extending from the seventh to the ninth verse of this chapter, – the meaning of the war which Satan carries on against the camp of the saints and the beloved city when the thousand years are finished. In other words, no sooner was Satan, as regards the saints, completely bound than, as regards the world, he was loosed; and from that hour, through all the past history of Christianity, he has been stirring up the world against the Church. He has been summoning the nations that are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to the war. They war, but they do not conquer, until at last fire comes down out of heaven and devours them. The devil that deceived them is cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where are also the beast and the false prophet; and they shall be tormented day and night forever and ever. (* Rev 12:12)

The whole picture of the thousand years is in its main features – in the binding of Satan, in the security and blessedness of the righteous, and in the loosing of Satan for the war – a striking parallel to the scenes in chap. 12 of this book. There Michael and his angels contended with the devil and his angels; and the latter “prevailed not,”1 but were cast out of heaven into the earth, so that the inhabitants of heaven are forever safe from them. There the man-child who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, and from the thought of whom it is impossible to separate the thought of those who are one with Him, is caught up unto God and unto His throne. Finally, there also the dragon, though unable really to hurt the saints, “the rest of the womans seed,” makes war upon them, but without result. Of this scene the picture which we have been considering is at once a repetition and a fuller development; and, when we call to mind the peculiarities marking the structure of the Apocalypse, we seem in this fact alone to have no slight evidence of the correctness of the interpretation now proposed.2 (1Comp. the remarkable parallel in Joh 1:5 : “and the darkness overcame it not.”)

(2It is not to be denied that difficulties attend the interpretation of the thousand years suggested in the text. The writer would advert in a note to the two which appear to him to be the most formidable.

1. In Rev 20:3 we read that Satan was cast into the abyss, etc., “that he should deceive the nations no more, until the thousand years should be finished.” Let it be granted that “the nations” here referred to can hardly be understood in any other sense than that common in the Apocalypse: the heathen, the ungodly, nations or the wicked in general. We then seem to read that there must be a time during which Satan does not “deceive the nations,” while the explanation given above has been that he was no sooner subjugated for the righteous than he was let loose to deceive the unrighteous. In his Lectures on the Revelation of St. John (p. 224, note) the author was disposed to plead that the words in question may not have beer intended to indicate that action on Satans part was for a time to cease, but rather to bring out and express that aspect of Satan by which he is specially distinguished in the Apocalypse. In deference to the criticism of the Rev. H. W. Reynolds (Remarks on Dr. Milligans Interpretation of the Apocalypse, pp. 9, 27), he would yield this point. Notwithstanding the irregular constructions of the Apocalypse, it is at least precarious; and it is better to leave a difficulty unsolved, especially in a case where difficulties surround every interpretation yet offered, than to propose solutions of the sufficiency of which even the proposer is doubtful. It may be asked, however, without resorting to the conjecture formerly thrown out, whether the words “that he should deceive,” even when taken in what is said to be their only true sense, are irreconcilable with the view of the thousand years advocated in this commentary. – That view is that the subjugation of Satan for a thousand years means his complete subjugation. When, therefore, it is said that he has been so shut up as “to deceive the nations no more, until the thousand years should be finished,” the meaning may simply be that in the act of being subjected he was deprived alike of authority and opportunity to deceive the nations. It lay within the power of the Conqueror to grant or not to grant him fresh liberty to do so. The “strong man” was then bound, and “his goods were spoiled.” He was completely subjected to Christ. When, therefore, we are told of the thousand years during which he was to deceive the nations no more, this language is only the continuation of the figure used in the second verse of the chapter; and what the Seer intends to express is, that during the process of his subjection, and until he should be again loosed by Him who had subjected him, he could do nothing. Satan, in short, must be permitted to come up out of the abyss either in his own person or by his agents before he can disturb the earth (comp. Rev 9:2); and it is the purpose of God that he shall not have power to disturb it until, having been really “brought to nought” by Christ (comp. Heb 2:14), he shall go forth to his evil work among the nations as one who, whatever may be the increase of his wrath (comp. Rev 12:12), has yet been overcome by another far mightier than himself.

2. The second difficulty demanding notice is presented by the words of Rev 20:5, “The rest of the dead lived not until the thousand years should be finished.” Who are these called “the rest of the dead,” and in what sense did they “live”? The term “the rest,” applied to persons, occurs in the following passages of the Apocalypse in addition to that before us: Rev 2:24; Rev 9:20; Rev 11:13; Rev 12:17; Rev 29:1. In every one of these cases it refers to the remaining portion of a class mentioned, but not exhausted; and it cannot be extended to any class beyond them. Here, however, no class has been spoken of except the righteous, or rather the “souls” of the righteous, described by various particulars both of their character and their state. “The rest” of the dead must therefore belong to that class, and to it alone. They cannot be the general body of mankind, both good and bad, with the exception of those previously mentioned. Again, what is meant when it is said that the rest of the dead “lived”? The same word had occurred in the immediately preceding verse, and it must now be understood in the same sense. “If,” says Dean Alford, who has been quoted with great confidence against the present writer (Reynolds, u.s., p. 23), “in such a passage the first resurrection may be understood to mean spiritual rising with Christ, while the second means literal rising from the grave, then there is an end of all significance in language; and Scripture is wiped out as a definite testimony to anything. If the first resurrection is spiritual, then so is the second, which I suppose none will be hardy enough to maintain” (on Rev 20:4-6). Now that is exactly what is here maintained. The “lived” of Rev 20:4 is spiritual; the “lived” of Rev 20:5 is also spiritual. The “rest of the dead” then are the Old Testament saints of Rev 6:9, who, by the completion of the Lords redeeming work, were brought up to the level of the New Testament Church. The meaning of Rev 20:5 may thus be said to be that, the New Testament Church having had first bestowed upon it a complete redemption, the same white robes were afterwards given to the Old Testament Church, the succession being again one of thought rather than time. In this way all the members of Christs body are marked out as having been “dead” before they lived, thus identifying them with their Lord in Rev 1:18; the position of the words at the close of Rev 20:5, “this is the first resurrection,” is rendered more natural by their thus following what is wholly a description of the condition of the blessed, instead of having a sentence interposed of an entirely different character; and, finally, to say nothing of the contextual consideration already referred to, the full Johannine force of the word “lived” is preserved.

These answers to the two chief difficulties associated with the interpretation here suggested of the thousand years may not be satisfactory to all; but it is submitted that they go far at least to meet them, and that in themselves they are neither unfair nor strained. Against one thing only must the author of this commentary enter his most decided protest, – the allegation that the interpretation here offered is gained by dispensing with textual criticism (?) and by sacrificing grammar to an idea. If there be one ground more than another upon which it rests, it is upon the strictest principles of historical interpretation. It ought only to be remembered that the idiosyncrasies of an author are as much a part of such interpretation as the literal meaning of his words; and that to that interpretation, if honestly and thoroughly conducted, the most deeply ingrained prejudices will in due time be compelled to submit.

The three great enemies of the Church have not only been overcome, but judged, and forever removed from all possibility of troubling the righteous more. But the great mass of the wicked have not yet been overtaken by a similar fate. The time has now come to show us in vision what awaits them also: –

“And I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat upon it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne; and books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, even the lake of fire. And if any was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire (Rev 20:11-15).”

Upon various particulars mentioned in this passage it is unnecessary to say much. The throne beheld by the Seer is great, at once in contrast with the “thrones” of the millennial reign, and as befitting the majesty of Him who sits upon it. It is also white, as emblematic of His purity and holiness. The Judge is God, the Father in the Son, the Son in the Father; and thus the judgment is searching and complete, and is answered by the consciences of those upon whom it is executed. They see that the Judges eye penetrates into the most secret recesses of their hearts, and that He is One who has been in the same position, has fought the same battle, and has endured the same trials as themselves. Thus His sentence finds an echo in their hearts, and they are speechless.* Thus also judgment becomes really judgment, and not merely the infliction of punishment by resistless power. (*Comp. Mat 22:12)

The effect of the Judge s taking His seat upon His throne was that from His face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them. Yet we are not to understand that after their flight there was neither an earth nor a heaven to be found. It is only the old earth and the old heaven that are spoken of; and almost immediately afterwards the Seer exclaims, “I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth are passed away.”1 The change is part of that “restoration of all things” of which St. Peter spoke to the multitude gathered together in Solomons porch,2 of which he then added, “Whereof God spake by the mouth of His holy prophets which have been since the world began,” and upon which he dwelt more fully in his second Epistle when he said, “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up. But, according to His promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.”3 In the Epistle to the Romans, too, “creation” longs, not for destruction, but for something akin to that “liberty of the glory of the children of God” which they shall obtain along with their “adoption, to wit, the redemption of their body.”4 In all these passages it is not the translation of Gods saints to an immaterial sphere that lies at the bottom of the thought. It is rather the idea of change, of the trans figuration, of the glorification, of this present scene into a state corresponding with that of its redeemed inhabitants, when they shall “not be unclothed, but clothed upon,”5 and shall dwell in “spiritual bodies.”6 To St. John “heaven” is not an abode of bliss in a scene of which we can form no clear conception, but the spiritual atmosphere in which, alike on this side the grave and on the other, the saints live and move. The “dwellers upon earth” are not those who simply tread its firm soil and breathe its atmosphere, but those who are worldly in their spirit and whose views are bounded by the things of time. The kingdom which Christ establishes is the “kingdom of this world” in its cleansed and purified condition rather than one to which we travel by long and unknown paths. As the Seer looks forward to the future there is nothing to show that he thinks of any other residence for man than that which the Son consecrated by His tomb in Josephs garden and by the glory of the resurrection morning; and even the new Jerusalem comes down out of heaven to be established upon earth. (1 Rev 21:1 2 Act 3:21; 3 2Pe 3:10; 2Pe 3:13; 4 Rom 8:21-23; 5 2Co 5:4; 6Comp. 1Co 15:44)

Many may doubtless think that such a hope is too earthly, too material, to be suited to the spiritual nature of the Christian dispensation. They fear that it has a tendency to withdraw us from Him who is “spirit,” and who must be worshipped, if He is to be worshipped acceptably, “in spirit and truth.”1 But any such apprehension is at variance with the fundamental fact of our Christian faith, the incarnation of our Lord, and is little less than the revival of the old Manichean heresy that matter is essentially evil. Two errors have existed, and may exist, in the Church upon this point. We may strip the Gospel of its spiritual element, and may reduce it to a system of outward and material forms, or we may strip it of its material element, and may resolve it into a vague and shadowy mysticism. Both are the errors of extremes, and it would be difficult to say which has wrought most havoc in the Church. If the one was disastrous in the days of the supremacy of Romanism, the other is hardly less disastrous now. To the false and spurious spiritualism which it engenders we owe not a few of the most serious misconceptions of the present time with regard to the person of Christ, the Church, the Sacraments, and the purpose of redemption as a whole.2 (1 Joh 4:24; 2In connection with the point here spoken of, reference may be made to an interesting and instructive paper by Canon Dale Stewart Rector of Coulsdon, in The Churchman for December, 1887.)

To return to the main question in connection with the passage before us. Does it present us with the picture of a general judgment or of a judgment of the wicked alone? There is much in the passage that leads distinctly to the latter conclusion.

1. The whole vision is obviously an enlargement of what we have already met under the seventh Trumpet, when it was said that “the time of the dead to be judged came.”* In both visions the persons spoken of as “the dead” must be the same; and they are clearly distinguished in the earlier vision from those called “Thy servants the prophets,” the season of whose “reward” was come. With this corresponds the fact that in the writings of St. John the words “to judge” and “judgment” are always used, not in a neutral sense, but in one tending to condemnation. Without some qualifying term the Apostle could hardly have applied them to the acquittal of the righteous. (* Rev 11:18)

2. The sources whence the “dead” are gathered confirm this conclusion. These are three in number: the sea, death, and Hades. Looking first at the two last of these, it is plain that “death” cannot in this connection be the neutral grave, for it is “cast into the lake of fire,” where the devil, the beast, and the false prophet are. Similar remarks apply to “Hades,” which in Rev 6:8 is the coadjutor of death, and which in the New Testament always appears as a region of gloom, and punishment, and opposition to the truth: ” And thou, Capernaum, shalt thou be exalted unto heaven? thou shalt go down unto Hades; “And I also say unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”* If such be the sense in which we are to understand death and Hades, light is thrown upon the manner in which we are to interpret the first of the three sources, – “the sea.” This cannot be the ocean, because the number of those to be given up from its depths at the last day is comparatively small; because, as the literal sea, it is in no way suitably associated with death and Hades; and because, when we read in Rev 21:1, “And the sea is no more,” it is impossible to think that the word is used in any other than a figurative sense. No reason can be imagined why, when the earth is renewed, there should be no more that sea which is one grand instrument of its present greatness and glory. Besides all this, we have hitherto found that in the Apocalypse the “sea” is the emblem of the unruly and troubled nations of the earth, and the source from which the first beast of chap. 13 had his origin. In the same sense therefore we must understand it here. Like “death” and “Hades,” “the sea” spoken of can give up none but ungodly dead to the judgment of the great day. (* Mat 11:23; Mat 16:18)

3. The “books” mentioned in the passage are clearly books containing the record of evil deeds alone. When it is said that “books” were opened, and that “another book was opened, which is the book of life,” the “books” are distinguished from the “book.” It harmonizes with this that the book of life is not opened in order to secure deliverance for those whose names are inscribed in it, but only to justify the sentence passed on any who are cast into the lake of fire.

4. The general teaching of St. John ought not to be lost sight of in considering this question. That teaching is that the eternal condition of the righteous is fully secured to them even in this life, and that in their glorified Head they have already passed through all those preparatory stages on their way to everlasting blessedness at the thought of which they might otherwise have trembled. In Him they have lived, and overcome, and died. In Him they have been raised from the dead, and been seated in the heavenly places. All along they have followed the Lamb whithersoever He goeth, and everything that befell Him has in principle befallen them. We cannot say, in the Johannine sense of the word, that Christ has been “judged;” and therefore “judgment” cannot be predicated of the members of His Body. To these last “judgment,” we have already seen, “was given” at the time when they entered on their millennial reign; and, with the result of this judgment (for that is the true meaning of the original) in their hands, it is impossible to think of them as judged again.

The judgment of these verses is therefore a judgment of the wicked; and, when it is closed, all Christs enemies have not only been vanquished, but have been banished from the scene where He is to reign ” before His ancients gloriously.”* The first part of the final triumph has been accomplished. (* Isa 24:23)

Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary