Revelation 20:1-3

In chapter 19 we saw the wedding feast of the Lamb and the fate of the beast and false prophet, thrown alive into the lake of fire. Now in chapter 20 we see the fate of the devil and the rest who have not believed. This is probably one of the most debated sections of Scripture — the most weighty in shaping the doctrines of some systematic theologies. I'll do my best, but I ask that each of us ask God to help us understand, and not become anxious over hard-to-explain Scriptures. The thing we must understand most clearly, God has faithfully revealed: he desires us to believe in his Son and follow him.¶

Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit... 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.

Revelation 20:1-3 (ESV)¶

Satan made lowest¶

First Satan was thrown down from heaven; now he is thrown down even from the earth, made lower than everything — beneath not just God but man and every creature. How humiliating. It is not enough to defeat him; God belittles him, putting him back on his belly, fulfilling to the highest degree the curse of Genesis 3:14. This is one of God's purposes: to disarm and put to open shame all the spiritual rulers who oppose him (Colossians 2:13-15).¶

The millennial reign — the four views¶

The thousand years is the millennial reign of Christ, a major point of debate. There are four main views (read about them yourself): Dispensational Premillennialism (Christ returns before a seven-year tribulation, then reigns 1,000 years), Historical Premillennialism (Christ returns just before the millennium, after great tribulation), Postmillennialism (the millennium is an era of the gospel's gradual triumph, after which Christ returns), and Amillennialism (the kingdom was inaugurated at Christ's resurrection; he reigns now over his church, interpreting Revelation 20 non-literally). I personally tend to read Scripture more literally — but it is for each of us to discern, searching the Scriptures prayerfully rather than just taking our teachers' view. As Blue Letter Bible says: "if you are yet undecided, do not fear, for salvation is not built or broken on Revelation 20, but on the person of Jesus Christ."¶

Why a thousand years?¶

Why a 1,000-year reign at all? I believe God reveals the purpose throughout Scripture. If you hold Genesis as a literal account (as I do, because Jesus did) — God made the world in six days and rested on the seventh — then this 1,000-year rest makes more sense. Peter writes, "with the Lord one day is as a thousand years" (2 Peter 3:8-9). Many have tried to calculate the years since Adam from the biblical genealogies, and most come out close to 4,000 years from Adam to Jesus, putting the world at around 6,000 years old — 6,000 years representing six days of creation, the time God allotted for his work, with the seventh day reserved for rest.¶

We see this principle in the sabbath-year law (Leviticus 25): six years they worked the land, and the seventh was a year of rest — an act of faith. God warned that if Israel did not obey, the land would enjoy its sabbaths while they were exiled (Leviticus 26:33-34), which is exactly what happened (2 Chronicles 36:20-21). I believe one purpose of the 1,000-year reign is to give the earth the rest it has longed for, now that Christ rules — and a rest from God's work of salvation, now complete. The seventh and seventieth years were also years of jubilee, when debts were released and slaves set free; and the sabbath laws taught that the land was borrowed: "the land is mine" (Leviticus 25:23). Another purpose of the reign is to show the world whose it is — it is all God's (Psalm 24:1). I believe in a literal 1,000-year reign just as I believe in a literal six days of creation — and these things are not hard for a child to believe (Matthew 18:3). God desires us to become like children: not blind faith, but trusting reliance that what God says is true.¶