the thousand years
of REVELATION 20
- REVELATION 20:1-2 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.
We should first acknowledge the fact that no one today can say for sure just how long this thousand years was to last. We can not possibly claim to know whether or not it referred to a literal thousand years or to a figurative thousand years. Nevertheless, we can be confident that those of the first century well understood what to us might be draped in darkness and mystery.
That's because they possessed what we don't, for they lived and moved in that culture; they had already been well instructed concerning many of the details pertaining to those events which they were even then passing through; they had been taught all of the particulars of the impending return of Christ, while we are still trying to sift through the fragments and remains of events in the distant past.
Howbeit, scripture often leaves clues and signposts which mark out for us the right meaning of a passage. There are markers which when discovered frequently reveal for us the writer's intent. One of these evidently lie just a handful of sentences following the passage we are considering.
- REVELATION 20:7-8 And 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.
The number of these armies, which were perhaps a million or so, were being compared to the sand of the sea, which are probably many, many trillions in number. We all recognize that the writer had to have been speaking figuratively here; and if so then why not also a few verses earlier with the thousand years? Surely it's a reasonable consideration that Satan being bound a thousand years was also a figurative expression?
Figures of Speech are intended to stop us in our reading and to draw for us a mental picture so that we might notice some important point. We are being beckoned to recognize a special word or fact which we might otherwise have just passed over. These figures are for our understanding so as to help us perceive just what the writer was intending. The explanation and importance of these Figures of Speech was well defined by E.W. Bullinger in his book, How to Enjoy the Bible, page 391.
- A Figure is a departure from the natural and fixed laws of grammar; a legitimate departure from law; not arising from ignorance or accident, but from design.
- This departure is made with the set purpose of calling attention to what is said, in order to emphasize it.
We should therefore note that elsewhere in scripture this reference to a thousand years often has this same sense of representing not a literal but a figurative number.
- 1 SAMUEL 18:7 . . . . Saul hath slain his thousands, And David his ten thousands.
- DEUTERONOMY 32:30 How should one chase a thousand, And two put ten thousand to flight. . . .
- ECCLESIASTES 6:6 Yea, though he live a thousand years twice told, yet hath he seen no good: do not all go to one place?
In each of these instances, a figurative thousand is probably used to illustrate an actually much less amount. The Oriental spoke frequently in figures of speech and thus exaggerated when he wanted to draw special attention to something. As such, we are not far off the mark to suggest that when the writer stated that Satan was to be bound a thousand years, he was not necessarily speaking literally, but very possibly he was speaking figuratively. It is not necessary for us to be locked into this literal thousand year period. Instead, we would do well to look for some other way to measure the duration of Satan's binding. Was he bound for many centuries or for a much shorter duration?
In one of Paul's letters we might obtain additional insight into the length and scope of this period, where the apostle seems to suggest that events surrounding Christ's return were not spread out over centuries, but rather occurred in quick succession. To the Thessalonians he wrote,
- 2 THESSALONIANS 2:1-2 Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming [parousia] of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
He was writing concerning them being troubled about whether or not the day of Christ was at hand, or upon them. Evidently they had been told by false teachers that they had already missed the gathering together.
- 2:3-5 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away [apostasy] first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
He then went on to remind them of what he had taught previously, that prior to that day of Christ return, that there would be an apostasy (MATTHEW 24:10, 12; 1 TIMOTHY 4:1-3; 2 TIMOTHY 3:1-9), where many believers would forsake their calling. And further, that that day would not come until the man of sin was revealed. But for now, this individual was being held in check, and not able to carry out his wicked plans.
- 2:6-8 And now ye know what withholdeth [holds him fast] that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth [holds him fast] will let [hold him], until he [who is holding him] be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.
Paul reminded them that currently this man of sin was being kept in check, unable to unleash his evil upon the believers because something and someone was holding him back. There is a high likelihood that Nero was this man of sin; and Rome and its current Emperor Claudius were the ones restraining him by their rule of law (ROMANS 13:1; TITUS 3:1; 1 PETER 2:13). But soon, possibly within three or four years of this letter being written to the Thessalonians, Claudius would be murdered (October of 54 A.D.) and Nero would rise to eventually become the most feared and wicked person of the ancient world.
The probable reason why this wicked person was not identified, here or in REVELATION, was because each writer knew that his naming might unleash upon the believers further wrath. So to minimize this, the name of this person was just hinted at, at least in their writings.
But afterward, after his evil had run its course, then at the very dawn of the Lord's return he was to be destroyed, which actually occurred for Nero in June of 68 A. D. It is curious that Paul says that this evil and wicked man was to be consumed by the spirit of the Lord's mouth. It has often been conjectured that Nero took his own life, which might have been the result of a ceaseless condemning voice inside his own head. At any rate, this wicked person was to be destroyed with the brightness of Christ's return, which according to REVELATION, shortly came to pass.
According to Paul here, the rapid sequence of events were as follows: this man of sin was currently being held back from his evil intent; but that which had been holding him back would soon be removed; then, his wicked designs would be unleashed upon the believers with many of them apostatizing; then finally Christ would return and destroy him.
Satan being temporarily bound in REVELATION 20 might well have ran parallel to, and along side of Nero being restrained from his evil intentions. While Satan was so restrained he could only watch circumstances unfold and make plans accordingly. Then, Satan being loosed for a little season, coincided perfectly with the Roman Emperor Claudius being murdered and eventually Nero being unleashed to wreak his havoc upon the Church. The timeline of these two records fit perfectly with each other.
But on the other hand, if the thousand years is to be taken literally, then these rapidly unfolding events in this section in Paul's letter could probably have nothing whatever to do with Satan being bound. In that case we must look out a thousand years into the future from 70 A.D. to seek for some evidence that might point to an occurrence where Satan would have been released.
Coincidentally, the Roman Catholic Church's Crusades are said to have began around a thousand years after the destruction of Jerusalem. In that case, Satan's fury might again have been let loose upon the inhabitants of the Holy Land by the armies of the Holy Church. Also, the fall of Constantinople, which was equated with the end of the Roman Empire, was dated at 1063 A.D., nearly a thousand years after the destruction of Jerusalem. Howbeit, nothing occurring during those times seems to have had anything to do with Christ's return.
As such, we are left with no decisive conclusion. We must therefore pick one which most favors the evidence that we possess. Nevertheless, regardless if the thousand years of which Satan was bound was literal or figurative, that affects very little whether or not Christ returned within the lifetime of His own generation, as is repeatedly stated in Scripture.
Howbeit, there has now come to light a third possible option, besides a literal or figurative thousand year period, for what John saw in his vision. To consider that, go Here.