20:1 The Millennium SUMMARY OF REVELATION 20: Satan Bound for a Thousand Years. Thrones and Saints Reigning with Christ. The First Resurrection. Satan Loosed at the End of a Thousand Years. The Gathering of Gog and Magog and of the Nations. Their Attack Upon the Saints. Their Destruction. The Devil Cast into the Lake of Fire. The Great Judgment. And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit. Having the key of the abyss (Revised Version). The abyss is named in Re 9:1,11 11:07 17:08 It is the present abode of Satan and his evil spirits. The things seen by John are symbolical. They imply that in some way the power of Satan shall be virtually destroyed upon the earth. And a great chain in his hand. See PNT Re 20:2. 20:2 He laid hold on the dragon... and bound him for a thousand years. The chain (Re 20:1) I suppose to be the Word of God. At this period of the triumph of righteousness the gospel takes such hold of the hearts of men that Satan loses his powers over them. We can easily see how this is accomplished by what takes place under our own eyes. A man may be drunken and lawless, but if he repents under the influence of the gospel he ceases to serve Satan. The devil loses his power over that man. When that period shall come for which the saints in all ages have wistfully looked, when the laws of God shall be written upon every heart, then Satan, bound with a chain, the chain of truth, shall be deprived of influence on the earth. 20:3 And cast him into the bottomless pit... till the thousand years should be fulfilled. During this millennial period the chained enemy of man is cast into a prison house, but not the lake of fire. Had he gone there he should never more return. He shall go there as his ultimate fate (Re 20:10), but after the thousand years, he is to return to the earth for a little season, and until the final effort of his long struggle against God he shall be confined in the abyss, from whence there is the possibility of escape, instead of being cast into the lake of fire, which is an eternal doom. In the bottomless pit the great deceiver shall remain till the thousand years are ended, when for a little season he shall regain his power. 20:4 And I saw thrones, and they that sat upon them. These thrones are symbols of rule. It implies that they who sit on them shall have sway. And judgment was given unto them. They shall exercise a moral judgment over humanity. And [I saw] the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus. Of the martyrs. Note that it is the souls that he observes. These are they who came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. Is this a literal resurrection from the grave? I answer decidedly in the negative. (1) The apostle does not say one word about the resurrection of the bodies of the martyrs, nor does he say that he saw the martyrs themselves. He is particular to say that he saw the souls or spirits of the martyrs living and reigning with Christ. (2) They had been put to death in the body, and their souls were unseen upon the earth, but there is no intimation in Scripture that their souls had ever ceased to exist. They were alive with Christ, but now they live in some sense different from that existence which they had before. It cannot mean that their souls came to life, for they had never ceased to have existence. (3) What, then, does the affirmation mean? That as Christ reigns upon the earth during the millennial period by his truth, so the spirit of the martyrs is revived and lives in the Church. The souls of the martyrs live because the Church is composed of those who love Christ better than goods or liberty or life. This glorious reign of Christ pervades the earth because the souls of the martyrs are resurrected and live in all who name the name of Christ, and who are filled with the spirit of ancient martyrs. (4) If any should think such an interpretation of symbolical language far fetched, let him compare Scripture. This explanation is not forced nor the interpretation of the language unusual. It was predicted by the prophets that Elijah must come again before the Messiah. He did come in spirit and power, not in person, but as the stern, fearless, upright reformer of the wilderness of Jordan. In the same sense Ezekiel speaks (Eze 37:12-14.) of the return of the captive Jews to their own land: '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. When Martin Luther was engaged in deadly struggle with the Papacy, Pope Adrian sent a brief to the German Diet at Nuremburg, which contained these words: The heretics Huss and Jerome are now alive again in the person of Martin Luther. And they lived and reigned with Christ. John saw that those who sat on the thrones reigned with Christ a thousand years. See Isa 2:2. Will Christ come visibly to reign in person as an earthly monarch? The personal coming of the Savior is placed by all the sacred writers as the last event before the great judgment day. This great epoch is placed after the millennial period, and also after the overthrow of Satan in his last conflict. If the Savior, then, during the millennial period, is not visibly present upon the earth, how can he reign? Just as he reigns over each saint now. Those who know the Lord accept him as king, but in this period the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD As the waters cover the sea (Isa 11:9). All men shall hear and obey the gospel, and all shall submit to the beneficent scepter of Christ. A thousand years. I am not prepared to say that this blessed period shall be limited to a thousand years, but am rather disposed to believe that a thousand years, a round period of great duration, is chosen to show to the longing student of the prophets that there shall be a long, long period of righteousness upon the same earth that has been reddened with blood, filled with crime, and made foul by sin. The characteristics of this golden period of the human race are clearly pointed out by the prophets. 20:5 But the rest of the dead lived not. If the souls of the martyrs live again spiritually and morally upon the earth in the millennial period, as I have explained, then this statement is to be explained in harmony (see PNT Re 20:4 ). The rest of the dead lived not until the thousand years were finished. Until the end of the thousand years. The sublime faith of the martyrs pervades the saints during this period, and other men, wicked or less noble, sleep in silence, unseen and unknown, without influence upon the earth, until the millennial period is ended. They have no part of the first resurrection, of the spirits of the martyrs. 20:6 Blessed and holy [is] he that hath part in the first resurrection. In this great moral and spiritual resurrection that brings in the Millennium. On such the second death hath no power. The second death is the sad doom of eternal death. See Re 20:14. 20:7 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed. The earth shall have its golden age, but it shall not last forever. Satan shall, when many aged have rolled away, be loosed for a little season. From some cause that is wrapped in the darkness of the future, righteousness shall wane; wickedness shall revive; the great adversary shall in part regain his influence over our race. But it is cheering to know that his triumph will be short. He shall be loosed only for a little season (Re 20:3). 20:8 And will come out to deceive the nations. Again he shall marshal the hosts of sin and renew his old conflict. In the four quarters of the earth. From the whole earth. Gog and Magog. See Ge 10:2 Eze 38:2. Josephus says that Magog represented the Scythians, a great race spread over the country now occupied by Southern Russia. 20:9 And they went up on the breadth of the earth. They spread over it. Compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city. Assailed the true Church and sought to destroy it. How the Church shall be assailed cannot now be told, but there will be a determined attempt to extirpate it. The beloved city, the spiritual Jerusalem, the Church, shall be surrounded, but in the day of her extremity the Lord will hear her cry for help. Fire from heaven will descend on her enemies. Christ shall come. As the lightning flashes from the east unto the west, so shall the coming of the Son of man be (Mt 24:27). Then shall the Lord consume the wicked with the spirit of his mouth and the brightness of his coming (2Th 2:8). The day of the Lord shall come, when the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, and all its works shall be burned up (2Pe 3:10). Fire came down from heaven, and devoured them. For a comment on this read 2Th 1:7-10. They shall come in flashing fire to destroy his enemies. The time will have come for the arm of the Lord to be revealed in might. 20:10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire. This is Satan's last battle. His time has come. The great deceiver is not cast into the bottomless pit now. The lake of fire is opened, and we discover there the beast and the false prophet, but they have gone whence none ever return. There the devil is cast in and locked up to abide with his allies in wickedness forever. 20:11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat upon it. This is one more act in the great drama. The throne of judgment is set. The nations, living as well as dead, are called to stand before God. The white throne indicates purity, triumph, and glory. It is the color of the light. From whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. See Re 21:1. There is to be a new heaven and earth. The old ones are destroyed to be reconstructed. 20:12 And I saw the dead, small and great. As we learn from Re 20:13, the dead of every land, of earth, and sea and hades deliver their dead and all come to judgment. The books were opened. The records that contain all the deeds of men. And another book was opened, which is [the book of] life. The book of life in which the names of the saints are recorded. From these books all are judged according to their works. 20:13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it. A symbol of the lost dead of whom no man knoweth. And death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them. Death and Hades (Revised Version). The unseen world which hides from our view those who have departed from earth. The thought of the verse is that all the dead shall be judged. 20:14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. After this judgment day death and Hades (Revised Version) also, death and the unseen land of the dead, disappear forever. This is the significance of being cast into the lake of fire, the eternal prison house. Until the end of the Millennium and the final judgment men shall die, but after the grand epoch in the history of the universe, there shall be no more death. The last enemy, death, shall be destroyed. Then shall come to pass the saying that is written, O! death, where is your sting? O! grave, where is your victory ? (1Co 15:55). 20:15 Was cast into the lake of fire. Into the same lake of fire, that prison house to which have gone the false prophet and the beast, to which has been consigned the dragon, that old serpent the devil (Re 12:9 20:2), the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels (Mt 25:41). There shall also be banished those whose name has not been written in the book of life (Re 13:8 17:8). This is the second death. As far as Inspiration throws its light upon the sad lot of those consigned to that lake of fire (Re 19:20 20:10,14,15), theirs is an eternal fire. When some one has shown that doors of this final prison of the Universe have opened to permit the escape of those who have been consigned to its keeping, then we may perhaps indulge some hope that its prisoners will, in the lapse of endless years, escape from their sad environment. | |