BOUND FOR A THOUSAND YEARS
By Asa T. Robinson
The Millennium Defined — Time When Satan
Is to Be Bound — What Is the "Bottomless
Pit"? — The City Descends — Satan's
Last Work of Deception THIS article of Elder Robinson's presents the subject of the binding of Satan and the millennial period in a little different manner from the usual, and will be found a very interesting supplemental study to the article by Elder Daniells beginning on the first page. EDITOR. THE word "millennium" comes from two Latin terms, mille, a thousand, and annus, year, and means a period of one thousand years. Any period of one thousand years is therefore a millennium. There is one and only one period of one thousand years mentioned in the Bible, in which certain events are to occur. This period is brought to view in the twentieth chapter of Revelation. A correct understanding of the subject of the millennium, as a Bible doctrine, therefore depends upon the right interpretation of this remarkable chapter, the first nine verses of which deal with this subject. Verses 1 and 2 read as follows: "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." A TIME WHEN SATAN IS BOUND
This one thousand years is a time during which Satan will be bound. We are not to suppose that he will be literally bound, with a literal chain. We must therefore look for a set of circumstances through which the efforts of Satan will be so completely circumscribed that he can be said to be bound, and such circumstances must prevail during a period of one thousand years. How does the Bible speak of the work of Satan? — "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." 1 Peter 5:8. WHAT CONSTITUTES HIS BINDING
If we find that there ever will be a time, a thousand-year period, when Satan will be left in this world, with no people whom he can seek to destroy, that will certainly constitute his binding. What will happen to all the wicked who shall be living on the earth at the second coming of Christ? — "To you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power; when He shall come to be glorified in His saints." 2 Thess. 1: 7-10. What will become of the righteous people who shall be living on the earth at the second coming of Christ? — "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." 1 Thess. 4:17. What part of the resurrection will take place at the second coming of Christ? — "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." Verse 16. LIVED NOT TILL END OF THOUSAND YEARS
How long will it be before the rest of the dead — the wicked — will be raised? — "The rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished." Rev. 20:5. How long will the righteous be in heaven? — "They lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years." Verse 4. "They shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years." Verse 6. With the wicked all slain at the second coming of Christ, not to live again for a thousand years; and with the righteous reigning with Christ in heaven during that same time; with all, both righteous and wicked, beyond the reach of Satan's tempting and destroying power,— surely he will be bound. Where is Satan to be cast at the time of his binding? — "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." Verse 3. WHAT CONSTITUTES THE BOTTOMLESS PIT?
Let us, by a few simple questions and Bible answers, see if we can learn what will constitute this "bottomless pit," which is to be the prison abode of Satan during the one thousand years of his captivity. What will happen to all the cities in the world at the second coming of Christ? — "I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the Lord, and by His fierce anger." Jer. 4:26. How many men will then be living on the earth? — "I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled." Verse 25. What will be said of Satan at that time? — "They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; that made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?" Isa. 14:16, 17. "LOOSED FOR A LITTLE SEASON"
After being bound a thousand years, is Satan again to be loosed? — "And after that he must be loosed a little season." Rev. 20:3. If the wicked's remaining dead during the one thousand years, and the saints' reigning with Christ in heaven during that period, constitutes the binding of Satan, would not the bringing of both the righteous and the wicked back upon the earth, be the loosing of Satan? In Rev. 20:5, already quoted, it is clearly stated that the wicked will all be raised at the close of the one thousand years. What else did John behold taking place at that time? — "I John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." Rev. 21:2. "And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God." Verse 10. What place will be prepared for the holy city when it comes down upon the earth? — "His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south." Zech. 14:4. Who will be the occupants of the city? — "The nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it." Rev. 21:24. In what condition was the earth in the beginning, before it was fitted up as the abode of man? — "The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep." Gen. 1:2. Into what condition will the earth again be brought, when it becomes the prison abode of Satan for one thousand years? — "I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light." The Hebrew term rendered "face of the deep" in Gen. 1:2, and the Greek term rendered "bottomless pit" in Rev. 20:3, have exactly the same meaning. This shows that the prison home of Satan during the one thousand years will be this earth reduced to its chaotic state, as it was in the beginning, when "darkness was upon the face of the deep." SATAN'S LAST WORK OF DECEPTION
With the saints of God dwelling in the holy city here on the earth, and the unnumbered millions of the wicked all raised from the dead, what will be Satan's last great work of deception? — "When the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, 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 number of whom is as the sand of the sea. 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 from God out of heaven, and devoured them." Rev. 20:7-9. How does the prophet Ezekiel describe the coming of this innumerable army against the city of God? — "Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee." Eze. 38:9.457 SHALL THINK AN EVIL THOUGHT
What will come into the mind of the great rebel leader? — "Thus saith the Lord God; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought." Verse 10. Who is this one who shall "think an evil thought"? — "There is one come out of thee, that imagineth evil against the Lord, a wicked counselor." Nahum 1:11. What action will follow this wicked counsel? — "Thou shalt think an evil thought: and thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates." Eze. 38:10, 11. Why will the wicked hosts be deceived into the idea that the city of God has neither walls nor gates? — "The building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass. . . . And the twelve gates were twelve pearls: every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass." Rev. 21:18, 21. WEEPING AND GNASHING OF TEETH
What awful reality will dawn upon the deceived hosts of the wicked, as they look through those transparent walls and gates? — "There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out." Luke 13:28. Who only will have a right to an entrance into that city? — "Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." Rev. 22:14.