And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
An angel descends from heaven with the key and great chain to bind Satan by heavenly authority for a thousand years. The pit is this earth laid waste into a dark, chaotic wilderness at Christ's second coming, and the chain is the taking away of his power to deceive, tempt and harm, since no living person remains for him to work upon and he is cut off from other worlds. Confined with his evil angels to wander its broken surface, he must face the ruin his rebellion caused, bear responsibility for the sins he led God's people into, and await in suffering and terror his final punishment. It does not promise a coming age of earthly peace and worldwide conversion before Christ returns, but gives hope that His coming will end Satan's deceptions and bring everlasting holiness and freedom to His people.
Symbols of Confinement
An angel comes down from heaven with the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain to confine Satan, exercising heavenly authority for that binding and introducing his thousand-year banishment after Christ's second coming and the destruction of the wicked. The bottomless pit is this earth reduced to confusion, darkness, desolation, and a chaotic wilderness state, where Satan is confined for a thousand years.
That desolation is a broken wilderness condition with cities in heaps and in ruins, mountains moved and broken, caverns, scattered rocks, and uprooted trees. The great chain is not iron but deprivation of power to deceive, tempt, annoy, and direct people, with no privilege left to range to other planets to tempt and annoy those who have not fallen.
Satan is bound in the sense that no one remains on the desolate earth for him to deceive or upon whom to exercise his power, so he cannot continue his work of ruin, and he is cut off from the inhabitants of other worlds. He is confined to the earth alone for a thousand years with his evil angels, limited to wandering up and down over its broken surface. This binding frees the universe and the unfallen worlds from his presence and temptations, to the triumphant joy of angels and redeemed saints who break into shouts of triumph because they will be no more annoyed and tempted by the Devil.
Course of the Millennium
The binding comes after Christ's work as mediator is finished and after the investigative judgment, and after the destruction of the beast and false prophet, opening Satan's thousand-year banishment on the desolate earth. In that confinement he bears the guilt and responsibility for the sins he caused God's people to commit, before his final punishment in the fires that destroy the wicked and eradicate sin completely. The sentence laid upon him for seducing Adam and Eve was partly carried out at the crucifixion and will be fully executed at the beginning of the millennium, when he is confined to this earth in its chaotic state called the bottomless pit.
Deprived of his power on the desolate earth, he is left to see the ruin and curse produced by his rebellion against God's law, to reflect on the part he has acted since his fall, and to consider the judgment awaiting him. Limited to the earth alone with his evil angels, wandering up and down over its broken surface, he can no longer tempt and annoy others nor range to other planets to tempt those who have not fallen. There he suffers extremely and looks forward with trembling and terror to the dreadful future when he must suffer for all the evil he has done and be punished for all the sins he has caused to be committed. During that confinement he bears the guilt and responsibility for the sins he caused God's people to commit.
The same scene belongs to events connected with the close of the thousand years after Christ's second advent. When the wicked dead are raised his hopes revive, and having been cut off from deceiving and directing people while bound, he gathers them for a final attack on God's city. Afterward come his final destruction, the destruction of all the wicked and of sin itself, his being forever separated from God and His people and blotted from existence, and Christ's triumph and reign on earth.
Rejecting False Millennium
The thousand years to which the angel with the key and chain belongs had not already occurred in the past, and to say they were past is error. The passage does not teach a temporal millennium of peace and prosperity for the church, with all people becoming holy through worldwide conversion, either before Christ comes or before the end of the world. Future prophecies are to be understood in light of the literal fulfillment of past prophecies, which rules out that pre-advent age of peace and holiness.
That long-expected millennium is falsely expected to be ushered in through a religious union and a worldwide conversion movement. That expectation contradicts the picture of worsening wickedness and deception as the end approaches, as in Noah's time. There is no temporal millennium provided in which to carry out the work of warning the world, for the time for that work is limited and it must be done now.
The passage instead connects hope that Christ's coming will end sin and bring a time when God's people are free from the devil's temptation and enjoy holiness forever. Meanwhile Satan as the instigator of rebellion and the old serpent is actively using all his power to gain control of human minds, often without their perceiving it, and is making a final effort to keep people under his power as the world nears the time when it will pass from his grasp. Mesmerism is a satanic influence from the bottomless pit that will ultimately be consigned there along with those who continue to practice it.
An angel descends from heaven with the key and great chain to bind Satan by heavenly authority for a thousand years. The pit is this earth laid waste into a dark, chaotic wilderness at Christ's second coming, and the chain is the taking away of his power to deceive, tempt and harm, since no living person remains for him to work upon and he is cut off from other worlds. Confined with his evil angels to wander its broken surface, he must face the ruin his rebellion caused, bear responsibility for the sins he led God's people into, and await in suffering and terror his final punishment. It does not promise a coming age of earthly peace and worldwide conversion before Christ returns, but gives hope that His coming will end Satan's deceptions and bring everlasting holiness and freedom to His people.
Symbols of Confinement
An angel comes down from heaven with the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain to confine Satan, exercising heavenly authority for that binding and introducing his thousand-year banishment after Christ's second coming and the destruction of the wicked. The bottomless pit is this earth reduced to confusion, darkness, desolation, and a chaotic wilderness state, where Satan is confined for a thousand years.
That desolation is a broken wilderness condition with cities in heaps and in ruins, mountains moved and broken, caverns, scattered rocks, and uprooted trees. The great chain is not iron but deprivation of power to deceive, tempt, annoy, and direct people, with no privilege left to range to other planets to tempt and annoy those who have not fallen.
Satan is bound in the sense that no one remains on the desolate earth for him to deceive or upon whom to exercise his power, so he cannot continue his work of ruin, and he is cut off from the inhabitants of other worlds. He is confined to the earth alone for a thousand years with his evil angels, limited to wandering up and down over its broken surface. This binding frees the universe and the unfallen worlds from his presence and temptations, to the triumphant joy of angels and redeemed saints who break into shouts of triumph because they will be no more annoyed and tempted by the Devil.
Course of the Millennium
The binding comes after Christ's work as mediator is finished and after the investigative judgment, and after the destruction of the beast and false prophet, opening Satan's thousand-year banishment on the desolate earth. In that confinement he bears the guilt and responsibility for the sins he caused God's people to commit, before his final punishment in the fires that destroy the wicked and eradicate sin completely. The sentence laid upon him for seducing Adam and Eve was partly carried out at the crucifixion and will be fully executed at the beginning of the millennium, when he is confined to this earth in its chaotic state called the bottomless pit.
Deprived of his power on the desolate earth, he is left to see the ruin and curse produced by his rebellion against God's law, to reflect on the part he has acted since his fall, and to consider the judgment awaiting him. Limited to the earth alone with his evil angels, wandering up and down over its broken surface, he can no longer tempt and annoy others nor range to other planets to tempt those who have not fallen. There he suffers extremely and looks forward with trembling and terror to the dreadful future when he must suffer for all the evil he has done and be punished for all the sins he has caused to be committed. During that confinement he bears the guilt and responsibility for the sins he caused God's people to commit.
The same scene belongs to events connected with the close of the thousand years after Christ's second advent. When the wicked dead are raised his hopes revive, and having been cut off from deceiving and directing people while bound, he gathers them for a final attack on God's city. Afterward come his final destruction, the destruction of all the wicked and of sin itself, his being forever separated from God and His people and blotted from existence, and Christ's triumph and reign on earth.
Rejecting False Millennium
The thousand years to which the angel with the key and chain belongs had not already occurred in the past, and to say they were past is error. The passage does not teach a temporal millennium of peace and prosperity for the church, with all people becoming holy through worldwide conversion, either before Christ comes or before the end of the world. Future prophecies are to be understood in light of the literal fulfillment of past prophecies, which rules out that pre-advent age of peace and holiness.
That long-expected millennium is falsely expected to be ushered in through a religious union and a worldwide conversion movement. That expectation contradicts the picture of worsening wickedness and deception as the end approaches, as in Noah's time. There is no temporal millennium provided in which to carry out the work of warning the world, for the time for that work is limited and it must be done now.
The passage instead connects hope that Christ's coming will end sin and bring a time when God's people are free from the devil's temptation and enjoy holiness forever. Meanwhile Satan as the instigator of rebellion and the old serpent is actively using all his power to gain control of human minds, often without their perceiving it, and is making a final effort to keep people under his power as the world nears the time when it will pass from his grasp. Mesmerism is a satanic influence from the bottomless pit that will ultimately be consigned there along with those who continue to practice it.