The Abomination of Desolation - St. Marys Coptic Orthodox Church

THE UNHOLY TRINITY 67
the Cross and he will be loosed for a little season at the time of the end
when Antichrist will appear and the Great Tribulation is visited upon
the earth. The souls of the righteous, beginning with the soul of the thief
that was crucified with our Lord are now reigning with Christ in
Paradise. This is their first resurrection (resurrection of the soul.) The
second resurrection is when those souls are united with their new
heavenly bodies on the day of the Second Coming of our Lord
(resurrection of the flesh.) Obviously, those souls who attained to
Paradise will not taste the second death which is the lake of fire, a place
reserved for the souls that are now in Hades. Those souls who are now
tormented in Hades, will also be resurrected but into damnation, for
they will be thrown, body and soul, into the Lake of fire (the second
death.) That is why we are told that the rest of the dead did not
participate in this thousand year reign with Christ.
The meaning of the binding of Satan is that Satan has lost his hold on
the souls when Christ came to save us. When the Jews accused the Lord
of casting out devils by the power of the prince of demons, he answered,
“How can one enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods,
except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house.”
(Matt 12:29) Jesus did bind the strong man (Satan) and released the
souls that were enslaved to him from that bitter bondage, even the souls
of the righteous, who died before Christ, that were held in Hades were
released from that prison when Christ descended into Hades, after His
death on the Cross.
Someone may wonder how come Satan is bound with all the evil
around us? The answer is that Satan’s power has been curtailed, so that
we now have the power to resist him. But, our free will is not bound, so,
if we decide to use our free will to follow Satan, we are left to do so.
The prevalence of evil today means one of two things, either that a lot
of people are choosing to follow Satan than to follow Christ, or that we
are nearing the time of the end when the love of many shall wax cold and
iniquity will abound.
It is also important to know that numbers in Revelation are symbolic
and are not to be taken literally, so, a thousand years means a long time.
And, even though Satan has been bound for nearly two thousand years,
we are still living in the thousand year reign of Christ.