Satan, "Kinda" Bound

And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years. Revelation 20:2

For almost two thousand years there has been a Satanic attack on the book of Revelation from within the church. The main feature of this attack is that this book is beyond understanding. Seems God cannot write a book that makes sense. Of course, to ones with an agenda which is contradicted by Revelation, it is considered a deadly threat. And it is.

This situation is not just something I heard about. I have been exposed to it since I was a school boy. My father warned about staying away from Revelation. He followed the attitude of his Methodist church, instead of the Bible, although he was otherwise a faithful Christian.

Can you feel me straining to shut up about this? I could talk about this struggle so long that it would make a three hour speech by Fidel Castro seem like a hiccup. So I will restrict my comments to one item--the binding of Satan.

This thousand year binding is one way to define the period of the Millennium. It will be the only time in history when people will live free of his evil influence through binding.

Why binding rather than being cast into the Lake of Fire? Because his role is not yet complete.

Our zoo released an anteater so that he could eat up all the termites in an infested desk. Nature's vacuum cleaner. Satan has such a job ahead for him--to help dispose of the non-elect at the end of the millennium. But during this thousand year period he will be bound.

I told you of debating the issue of the millennium with a young man, many years ago. He maintained that Satan was bound so that he could not deceive the nations any more--only for that one reason!

Imagine, that since the beginning of the church age, Satan has not deceived the nations. What age was this, where Satan has not deceived the nations? It would be an age without wars. Who has heard of such a time? So, according to the young man, Satan was partially bound during the indefinite period of time which is the Presbyterian church's idea of the millennium.

Did you know that according to their theology, we are now living in a kind of millennium?

My wife, typing away as she entered data, said, "As long as I have these cataracts I know we are not in the millennium."

And no more death will take our loved ones away. It will be a time of peace, which we certainly do not have now.

The young man later interrupted my Braille Bible class, held in the church library, to accuse me of stealing from the petty cash drawer. Had he pressed charges, I could have been sentenced to "partial jail", so that I could not steal change for an indefinite period of time.