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REVELATION 20:1–3

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 31, 1901

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 78, No. 53.

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REVELATION 20:1–3.

By William P. Pearce

ELDER WILLIAM P. PEARCE.
“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, . . . and bound him a thousand years.”
John Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress,” which Macaulay called “a miracle of genius,” is largely sublime imagery. John Milton’s “Paradise Lost” is doubtless, as Channing said, “the noblest monument of human genius;” but it is a word painting in which the author has framed a world of horror and suffering, where the infernal world and its king have a terrible harmony, amid “solid and liquid fire,” in contrast to his “Paradise Regained,” which breathes “vernal airs,” “odoriferous wings of gentle gales,” and depicts “shady bowers and roses without thorns.” But John’s apocalyptic vision is not a dream nor imagination; it is a revelation, some parts of which have been, and other parts of which will be, literally fulfilled.
What a stirring, exciting scene the text delineates. The heavens are illumined with a gleam of light as the divine angel, like a flashing meteor, wings his way to earth. Hark! ’tis the rattling of the chain as link strikes link, as when Paul the prisoner entered the parlor of Felix in defense of the gospel. View the combatants! The gladiatorial contests when Achilles sacrificed twelve Trojan prisoners, and Julius Cæsar gave a show of three hundred and twenty couples, and Trajan arrayed two thousand men to slaughter one another; the historic duels between Hamilton and Burr, between Andrew Jackson and Dickinson, between Henry Clay and John Randolph, were but child’s play compared to this.
Look at the participants a moment! From personal observation they are not as unequally matched as were Goliath and David. This monster, for monster he is, was once an angel in the service of God. But he revolted against His authority, and was exiled. That second person is another angel. His form is beautiful in contrast with the other’s ugliness. His eye gleams with a righteous determination, in contrast with the vicious hatred of the other. His attitude is bold, triumphant-like, in contrast with the faltering and cowardly manner of the other. This angel, doubtless, is the Christ-messenger. Malachi calls Him “the Messenger,” and the word “messenger” is simply the translation of the Hebrew melek, which we translate “angel.” And of this One we are reminded by Christ’s own words, that He has the “keys of hell and of death;” and is the One who binds the strong man and spoils his goods. I am so glad that the opponent of Satan in this duel is Jesus, or at least His angel. If it were some one else, I might feel doubtful as to the outcome; but since Paul said: “Christ, . . . who is over all, God blessed forever” (Rom. 9:5), I am as certain of the result as if he had said: Christ over the Cæsars, or the Alexanders, or the Louises, or the Bonapartes.
The combatants draw near. Heaven smiles, hades growls, earth shudders. A step together, and the battle begins. The long-enduring, long-defying pride of Satan, covering the diadem which scorches his thunder-blasted brow, measures its power against the eternal justice of an eternal Christ, who with one powerful swing of His mighty arm fells the revolutionist to the earth, binds him with the great chain, and thrusts him into a dungeon fouler than the one in which Paul and Silas were incarcerated, darker than Beauchamp Tower, where Lord Dudley was imprisoned, and more detestable than the old French castle at Lewiston, where William Morgan was last seen alive.

USURPER AND INTRUDER.

Such is the scene which has yet to be enacted. At present this dragon is a usurper, like Richard the Third; but as the Duke of Richmond wrung the scepter out of his hand, and gave peace to the empire, so will Christ wring the scepter from the hand of this usurper.
The time was when ministers believed in the personality of the devil, and were not afraid to preach it. The time is when he is doubted, and not preached. The old doctrine of Socinianism, that he is a “symbolic person,” “the principle of evil personified,” “an evil disposition,” cannot be reconciled with any rational principle of Scripture interpretation. He is an actual being, a live entity who has never left the measure of his grave with any earthly sexton, but has caused thousands to be dug for others.
If the Hebrew name Abaddon and the Greek name Apollyon refer to him, and the more than one score things he is likened to in the Bible mean anything less than a personal destroyer, I would like to know it. It was a personal devil that tempted Eve; that smote Job with boils; that resisted Joshua the High Priest until the Lord rebuked him; that assailed Christ on the mountain and on the pinnacle of the temple; that influenced Ananias and Sapphira to lie; that delayed Paul in his journey to Thessalonica, for, said he: “Wherefore we would have come unto you, . . . but Satan hindered us.” And it is a personal devil working in the children of disobedience to-day. Eph. 2:2.
I note him in his firmamental power, for he is called “the prince of the power of the air.” Eph. 2:2. Not that he can create one breath of air, but he can and does gather the breaths together, and make whirlwinds and cyclones damage property and destroy lives. That is not the work of God. Not that he can create a drop of water, but he can and does gather the waters into a Johnstown flood, or a mountainous ocean engulfing life. It is not the work of God. Not that he can make a spark of fire, but he can and does make a Vesuvius vomit her lava upon a Pompeii, and forests and prairies roar with tongues of fire. It is not the work of God, for God is not a God of evil, but of good; and as long as Satan “is the prince of the power of the air,” a prince’s prerogative will he retain.
I note him again in his hypocrisy. Paul says: “For Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.” 2 Cor. 11:14. He is, as Luther calls him, “a white devil,” appearing in Samuel’s mantle, and silvering his foul tongue with fair language. He can palm himself off as a saint, and is tireless in his prosecution of making others appear the same. His name is Legion, and while he sometimes climbs the pulpit, he frequently visits the pew.
I note him again in his subtlety. Milton wrote:—
“Th’ infernal serpent; he it was whose guile, Stirred up with envy and revenge, seduced The mother of mankind.”
And not only her, but generations since has he deceived with an intent to ruin. “There was a day,” said Job (1:6), “when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them. And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.” Going to and fro, goading souls, belching anger, sowing error, and disturbing peace; going to and fro, casting discord in this home, creating jealousy in that heart, throwing a short measure, a false balance, into a tradesman’s shop, marching to the bar and handing in a forged evidence, laying plans to rob life of virtue and happiness, aiding nations to unsheath the sword, stooping to the vilest crimes, and seconding the greatest deliberations to cause strife and bloodshed.

A PRISONER.

Do you think my subject sensational when I say “chaining the devil”? Ought he not to be chained, and should we not rejoice the moment he is made a prisoner? To sigh for Paul’s incarceration in the Mammertine dungeon, John Baptist in the castle of Machærus, Socrates in the Athenian jail, Bunyan in Bedford prison, and Dante in his exile, is nothing more than right; but the song of thanksgiving should go up to God for the incarceration of Satan, as the voice of Britains, and Germans, and Austrians, and Russians did when Napoleon was taken prisoner and placed on the Isle of St. Helena. “Why?” you ask. Read my text again; for it says he shall be bound a thousand years. Take your dictionary and look up the word “millennium,” and you will find it to mean a thousand years.
O that Christ would arrest and chain Satan now! Then mothers would be spared breaking hearts, and fathers throbbing brains; then would worldliness never mar the Church; then would theatrical stages, saloon bars, card tables, race tracks, and piety bazaars be unknown; then would pride on the person, pipes in the mouths, and whisky bottles in the pockets disappear. Then would honesty come to the front, virtue be dominant, the race assume the appearance of a peaceful family, and the world become one grand, triumphant, adoring assembly. O let us pray Jesus to come speedily!

ONLY FOR A SEASON.

But in closing, do not forget that this chaining is only for a season. When Richard the Crusader battled against Isaac, Emperor of Cyprus, he took him captive, bound in “silver chains,” and kept him thus till death released him. Not so with Satan. This chapter says “he must be loosed a little season,” the same incorrigible fiend, breathing his malice and utilizing his deceit upon a peaceful race, only to be recaptured, and cast into the lake of fire; and not only he, but, as thefifteenth verse says, “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” I want you, my reader, to read your destiny. You can if you will. Is your name in the book of life? You know whether it is or not. If it is, then praise God, and pray for the speedy arrest of this usurper. If it is not, then I tell you the truth: “And whosoever”—and that includes you,—“and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” What an awful condition,—irredeemable, inexorable, and real! You know as well as I do that there is no pain like that of burning. A burnt finger will affect the whole nervous organism; then what must the whole being feel when literally baptized, yea, and virtually annihilated, in fire? I pray you to forsake the ways of Satan; leave his company; for as a leader he is bad; as a worker he is worse; and as a paymaster he is worst of all, causing sorrow in life, wretchedness in death, and misery hereafter.
A domestic in a fit of displeasure left the home of Luther without giving notice. She subsequently fell into habits of immorality, and became dangerously ill. In her sickness she requested a visit from Luther. On taking his seat by her bedside, he said: “Well, Elizabeth, what is the matter?” “I have given away my soul to Satan,” she said. “I have deliberately sold my poor soul to the devil, and how can such a crime ever find mercy?” Luther showed her that by right she belonged to the Lord, that He had died to redeem her, and that if she would confess and believe in Jesus, He would receive her in spite of what she had done. The girl obeyed, was converted, and died full of faith and hope. And you, servant of the arch-enemy of your soul, if you will flee to Christ and commit your soul to His care, He will save you. Will you do it? Will you do it now? Will you? Will you?