Revelation 20 - In Depth Bible Commentaries

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(...continued)
Premillennial Approach:
* The binding of Satan is yet future. It will take place when Christ returns.
*The 1,000 years is a literal period during which Christ will reign on earth from
Jerusalem, with His people.
*The loosing of Satan will bring the millennium to its climax, followed by the resurrection
and judgment of the wicked at the Great White Throne.
*The new heavens and new earth will be created after the Millennium, i.e., 1,000 years
after Christ’s Second Coming.
Amillennial Approach:
*The binding of satan represents the victory of Christ over the powers of darkness
accomplished at the cross.
*The 1,000 years is symbolic of a long, indeterminate period, corresponding to the age
of the church now.
*Satan will be loosed briefly to wreak havoc and to persecute the church in the end of
the present age.
*The fire coming from heaven and consuming the wicked is symbolic of Christ’s second
coming.
*A general resurrection and judgment of the evil and the good will occur at Christ’s
coming, followed by the creation of new heavens and a new earth.
Postmillennial Approach:
*Some interpret the chapter essentially as do the amillenialists, but with an added note
of optimism about the success of the gospel in the present age.
*Others see the binding of satan to represent a future point in time when the successful
preaching of the gospel will have effectively reduced satan’s influence to nothing.
*The 1,000 years may or may not be a literal duration, but speaks of the future glorious
age, prior to the second coming, in which the influence of the gospel will have a
universal sway.
*A final attempt on the part of a loosed satan at the end of the age will get nowhere.
*A general resurrection and judgment will occur at the coming of Christ.
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Compare verse 1 with its footnote, where the word "abyss" first occurs in this chapter.
In 9:1-3 we have read how John "...Saw a star having fallen out of heaven into the earth;
and the key of the pit of the abyss was given to it. And it opened the pit of the abyss, and
smoke went up from the pit, like smoke of a great oven, and the sun was darkened and the air
by the smoke from the pit. And out of the smoke came out grasshoppers into the earth..."
In the thought of the ancient world, the "abyss" was closely associated with the grave or
underworld; and they were all thought of as having "gates" that barred exit from their realm.
(continued...)
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