The 1,000 Years of Revelation 20. #1; The Binding of Satan. Visions are characterised by symbols.

The 1,000 Years of Revelation 20.

Rev. Angus Stewart

"Revelation 20 is a battleground.

"It is a battleground for two different reasons.

"First, it describes the largest and the most important battle in the history of the world.

"You could call it the battle of all battles or the war to end all wars, for with its conclusion the world, with all its fighting, ends.

"Second, Revelation 20 is a battleground between the various views of the last days.

"All the different schools of thought on eschatology have their own distinctive interpretations of Revelation 20.

"In fact, the four main views derive their names from Revelation 20: amillennialism, premillennialism, postmillennialism, and premillennial dispensationalism.

"For Revelation 20 is the only passage in the Bible that speaks of a “thousand years,” and it is from the Latin word for a thousand (mille) that we derive our English word “millennium,” a key component in the names of the four main eschatological schools.

"I am not going to explain the positions of these four systems of eschatology, for that would take us too far afield.

"Nor am I going to critique the various schools of thought; that would be too much for this article...

"I will simply explain the passage, going through it bit by bit, and, here and there, I will make the occasional criticism of the other millennial schools.1

"So what does Revelation 20 mean?

"In the first three verses we will look at the binding of Satan."

I. The Binding of Satan (1-3)

"The very first words of Revelation 20 are vital to its right interpretation.

"This chapter does not begin with the word “Then,” as if we are dealing with a temporal sequence.

"It does not start with “After that” either.

"It does not even begin with “It shall come to pass.”

"It simply begins, “And I saw.”

“And I saw” tells us that here we are dealing with a vision.

"A vision is not history; a vision is not even prophecy, as such; it is a special type of prophecy.

"Visions are characterised by symbols.

"By symbols, I am referring to such things as symbolic numbers, symbolic colours, symbolic names, symbolic metals, symbolic jewels, etc.

"Let us consider some visions or dreams, for in the Bible visions and dreams are very similar.

"Both visions and dreams contain what the seer “saw.”

"In Daniel 2, we have a giant statue of gold, silver, bronze, iron and then iron and clay, which symbolise four great world empires.

"Daniel 7 presents the same reality, this time under the imagery of four beasts.

"Daniel sees a lion and a bear and a leopard and then the fourth beast, dreadful and exceedingly terrible.

"These creatures represent Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome.

"Revelation 13 begins, “And I saw,” and then comes the beast with seven heads and ten horns and ten crowns, part lion, part bear, part leopard.

“And I saw,” tells us that we are dealing with a vision.

"The book of Revelation, in general, consists of a sequence of visions."

See: The 1,000 years of Revelation. #2. The Main Figure in Revelation 20:1-3 is Satan.