The Binding of Satan — Background and Introduction to the Controversy
In Revelation 20:1-3, John is given a remarkable vision:
“Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. 2 And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, 3 and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while.” In verse 7, John adds, “and when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison.”
The binding of Satan as depicted in this passage raises several obvious questions, especially in light of the on-going debate between amillennarians and premillennarians about the nature and timing of the millennial age. This is the only biblical text which specifically mentions a thousand year period of time in which Satan’s power and activity are curtailed during a millennial age (whether present, or future). Satan is said to be “bound” for the duration. The two most obvious questions raised by John’s vision are, “what does it mean for Satan to be bound in such a manner?” and “are the thousand years a present or a future period of time?” Amillennarians and premillennarians take quite different approaches to this passage and offer conflicting answers to these questions.
Amillennarians believe that the binding of Satan is but another way of speaking of Jesus’s victory over the devil during our Lord’s messianic mission. The thousand years are not a literal period of time, but refer to the entire age between Christ’s first and second coming (the inter-advental period). If true, the binding of Satan begins with our Lord’s death and resurrection, continues throughout the present age, and ends with the release of Satan from the abyss (abussos—the place of the dead, cf. Romans 10:7) shortly before Jesus returns at the end of the age when Antichrist is revealed during a time of final apostasy (cf. 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12). This brief apostasy is followed by the final consummation when Jesus returns (the second Advent). His return includes three concomitant events: 1). The general resurrection (1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11; 1 Corinthians 15:50-57), 2). The final judgment (Matthew 25:31-46; Revelation 20:4-6, 11-15), and 3). The ushering in of a new heavens and earth (2 Peter 3:4).
Premillennarians, however, contend that the thousand years are a literal period of time commencing after Christ’s second advent, who then establishes his physical rule over the earth in a millennial kingdom (Revelation 20:1-7). During this time, Satan is bound. The thousand years end with Satan’s release from his imprisonment so as to lead the nations in a final revolt against Jesus’s rule, immediately before the final judgment at the end of the millennial age (Revelation 20:7-10).
Why Premillennial Objections to the Amillennial View of the Binding of Satan Actually Backfire
The premillennial objection to the amillennial view is a simple and obvious one. How can there be evil on the earth if Satan is bound? This objection is plausible if two very untenable assumptions are in place. The first untenable assumption is that supposedly there are people on the earth in natural bodies during a future millennial age (after Jesus returns), who comprise the nations mentioned in Revelation 20:8. On premillennial assumptions, these are the people who revolt against Christ once unbound, and who are destroyed at the end of the millennial age at the time of final judgment. But the false assumption here is how can there be people on the earth after Jesus returns to raise the dead, judge the world, and usher in a new heaven and earth as made clear in the passages above? Who makes it through the final judgment and goes on to repopulate the earth, only to be deceived by Satan after the Second Advent? This is a biblical impossibility, especially in light of our Lord’s words in Luke 24:34-36. “And Jesus said to them, `The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.’” There can be no people in unresurrected bodes on the earth to revolt against Christ! Nor is Satan still around to be released and deceive them—his end (the Lake of Fire) has already come at the Lord’s return (Romans 16:20; Revelation 20:10).
The second untenable assumption is that evil remains on the earth even after our Lord’s return when the consummation of all things takes place (see the texts cited above) and time (this present evil age) gives way to eternity (the age to come). It makes far more sense that Revelation 20—speaking of martyrdom as it does, and ending in an apostasy and a revolt against Jesus while he rules the nations—is much more likely to be a description of the end of this present evil age, and not a depiction of some sort of a “second Fall” of redeemed and unredeemed people supposedly on this present earth after Christ’s return, post resurrection, post-judgment, and post cosmic renewal. This is highly problematic and does great injustice to the flow and progress of redemptive history.
I address the serious problems with the premillennial understanding of redemptive history and a future millennial age in some detail here: Evil in the Millennial Age? A Huge Problem for Premillennarians and in the Blessed Hope Podcast here: “This Age and the Age to Come: The Implausibility of Premillennialism.”
To summarize, amillennarians understand the binding of Satan to be a present reality, while premillennarians see this scene as an entirely future event. In what follows, I will consider and evaluate the biblical background to John’s vision and then respond to the premillennial challenge, “when and how is Satan is bound?” And “why is there so much evil in the world if he is?” These are two important questions which merit response.
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