Alan Gross
Well-Known Member
Revelation 20 also proclaims that Satan is bound:
"And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
"And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan [the four names that we have just considered], and bound him a thousand years,
"and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season" (1-3).
Is this binding of Satan absolute and complete
or is it relative and in part?
"To express it a little differently, Can the devil, once he is bound, do absolutely nothing because of his binding or is he only bound with respect to a particular activity?
"Again, Is Satan’s binding absolute and complete so that he is bound with respect to absolutely everything or is it a partial binding with respect to something specified in the Word of God?
"What does Revelation 20 say?
"It tells us that Satan is bound “that he should deceive the nations no more” (3).
"Verse 8 informs us, more fully, that when he is loosed (which is obviously the opposite of being bound), the devil “shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gag and Magog, to gather them together to battle.”
"Their battle is against Christ’s church, as we shall see more fully later.
"Thus the binding of Satan is God’s restraint of him that stops him from uniting all the nations together to destroy the church.
"This is what the passage says.
"The binding of Satan, as explained in Revelation 20, is not absolute and complete; it is relative and in part.
"Verses 3 and 8 specify that his binding concerns one particular thing, for Satan’s binding means that he can not unite all the world in a full-scale attack against God’s people.
"When, after his binding, he is loosed, he “shall go out to deceive the nations which are on the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle” (8).
This is the thing he can not do while he was bound.
But when he is loosed, he unites all the nations against the people of God.
"And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
"And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan [the four names that we have just considered], and bound him a thousand years,
"and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season" (1-3).
Is this binding of Satan absolute and complete
or is it relative and in part?
"To express it a little differently, Can the devil, once he is bound, do absolutely nothing because of his binding or is he only bound with respect to a particular activity?
"Again, Is Satan’s binding absolute and complete so that he is bound with respect to absolutely everything or is it a partial binding with respect to something specified in the Word of God?
"What does Revelation 20 say?
"It tells us that Satan is bound “that he should deceive the nations no more” (3).
"Verse 8 informs us, more fully, that when he is loosed (which is obviously the opposite of being bound), the devil “shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gag and Magog, to gather them together to battle.”
"Their battle is against Christ’s church, as we shall see more fully later.
"Thus the binding of Satan is God’s restraint of him that stops him from uniting all the nations together to destroy the church.
"This is what the passage says.
"The binding of Satan, as explained in Revelation 20, is not absolute and complete; it is relative and in part.
"Verses 3 and 8 specify that his binding concerns one particular thing, for Satan’s binding means that he can not unite all the world in a full-scale attack against God’s people.
"When, after his binding, he is loosed, he “shall go out to deceive the nations which are on the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle” (8).
This is the thing he can not do while he was bound.
But when he is loosed, he unites all the nations against the people of God.
