The
Binding of Satan*
By Ivan Foster
[* From ‘Watching and
Waiting’ (October-December, 2014.)]
There are reasons why the binding of Satan in Revelation 20:14
cannot refer to his defeat at
I understand that it is
generally believed among a-millennialists that the binding of Satan, in Revelation 20, is a reference to what happened to him at
God’s Word always makes good
sense. It is true that we may not be
able to fully comprehend at all times what it is that God is saying in His
Word, but it is never contrary to reason. The virgin birth of Christ may have been
beyond the full comprehension of the Old Testament believers, but the
revelation of how that came about, as recorded for us in the Gospels of Matthew
and Luke, indicates that the mystery, while outside the realm of human
experience, was not outside the realm of the possible and the reasonable. With God all things are possible and when
finally understood by men, perfectly reasonable.
For the post-tribulation Pre-millennialist,
Revelation 20: 1-4 is a plain record of a future event that will take place AFTER the
return of Christ in glory to claim for Himself the kingdoms of this
earth and reign over them for one thousand years.
The various incidents recorded
here - the binding of Satan with a great chain, his casting into the bottomless
pit, his prevention by a seal from deceiving the nations until the thousand
years are ended, the martyred dead from
the time of the antichrist reigning with
Christ upon the earth, are all literal statements of what will take place after Christ returns.
The mystical, symbolic and
figurative method of interpretation in which many unfortunately indulge, would
have us believe that this refers to a past event and that the restrictions
imposed upon the devil are in operation NOW! That is just
impossible to believe for those who treat the Word of God REVERENTLY and SERIOUSLY, and who
simply TAKE GOD AT HIS WORD.
I have some questions for those
who hold to the notion that Revelation 20: 1-4 refers
to
1
If the binding of the devil refers to the Saviour’s victory at Calvary does
not this imply that he was not bound before
Such an idea is totally erroneous. The devil has always been under restraint. This certainly was the case in Job’s day. ‘And the
LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in
thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand’ (Job 1: 12). ‘And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand;
but save his life’ (Job
2: 6).
What of the statement of Joseph
when questioned by his frightened brethren?
‘But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but
God meant it unto good, to bring to pass,
as it is this day, to
save much people alive’ (Genesis 50: 20). Here is God ruling over the actions and
intentions of the devil and wicked men. What
the wise man says in Proverbs 16: 4:
‘The LORD hath
made all things for Himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil’ is high
doctrine indeed but it makes clear that God overrules all things for His own eternal purpose and glory.
These restrictions continued in
New Testament times as is evident from the following verses. ‘And Jesus asked him, saying,
What is thy name? And he said, Legion: because many devils were entered into him. And they besought Him
that He would not command them to go out into the deep. And there was there an herd of many swine feeding on the mountain: and they besought Him that He would suffer them to enter into
them. And He suffered them. Then went the devils
out of the man, and entered into the swine:
and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the
lake, and were choked’ (Luke 8: 30-33). The devils were required to seek Christ’s
permission before they could enter the swine. This
denotes the degree of submission to Christ under which they existed.
‘And
there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out, saying,
Let us alone; what have we to do
with Thee, Thou Jesus of
The Saviour’s words to Peter
when he very foolishly rebuked the Saviour indicate His sovereignty over the devil. ‘Then Peter took Him,
and began to rebuke Him, saying, Be it far from Thee, Lord:
this shall not be unto Thee. But He turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee
behind Me, Satan: thou art an offence unto Me: for thou savourest not the things
that be of God, but those that be of men’
(Matthew 16: 22-23).
Later, just before His betrayal,
the Saviour’s words to Peter again indicate
His power over Satan. ‘And the Lord said, Simon,
Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith
fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren’ (Luke
22: 31-32).
Paul tells the Corinthian
believers that the degree to which they can be tempted by the devil, the great
tempter (1 Thessalonians 3: 5), is under the restraint of God. ‘There
hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, Who will
not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape,
that ye may be able to bear it’ (1 Corinthians 10: 13).
The devil cannot do all that he
would desire to do with God’s people today and has always been under this
restriction. But that is very different from the restrictions
that are listed in Revelation 20:14.
2
If at Calvary, Christ took the devil
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,’ then how can Peter, subsequent to Calvary, be inspired by the Holy Ghost to state
clearly: ‘Be
sober, be vigilant;
because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion,
walketh about, seeking whom he
may devour: whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the
same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world’
(1 Peter 5:
8-9)?
How can
Satan be walking about and threatening Christians with destruction, some
thirty-odd years after Calvary if he was there bound, shut up and sealed ‘that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled’? And how can he who is so bound and imprisoned
be resisted by the child of God today?
‘Neither
give place to the devil’ (Ephesians 4:
27). ‘Not a novice, lest being
lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover he must have
a good report of them which are without; lest he
fall into reproach and the snare of the devil’ (1 Timothy 3:
6-7).
What are we to make of Christ’s
words to the church in Smyrna when He said: ‘Fear
none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold,
the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye
shall have tribulation ten days: be thou
faithful unto death, and I will give thee a
crown of life’ (Revelation 2: 10)? How can the devil be ‘cast ... into the bottomless
pit, and shut ... up,’ and a seal set upon him, ‘that he should deceive the
nations no more’ and yet be free to cast some at Smyrna into prison?
This [A-millennialists’ spiritual] interpretation of Revelation 20:
14 just does not make sense, but makes a mockery of God’s Word. Indeed, the propagation of such a notion is
but further evidence of the devil being on the loose and deceiving the nations,
and some believers, still!
Does this [‘mystical, symbolic and figurative
method of interpretation’ by all Anti-millennialists] not make
a farce of God’s Word and make the cross-work of Christ a vain, meaningless and
empty thing? The binding of Satan
which Christ is alleged to have carried out is seen to be most ineffective. How this [popular and satanic] teaching shames the
Saviour and His cross-work!
3
If Christ has shut the devil up so 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,’ whence has come the tide of deception that has marked
this Christian era and has made the task of evangelising the nations so
incredibly difficult?
I know what the
Bible says in answer to this question. Consider
these verses: ‘But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the
Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the
price of the land?’ (Acts
5: 3). ‘But if our gospel be
hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the
minds of them which believe not, lest the
light of the glorious gospel [‘gospel of the glory’
R.V.] of
Christ, Who
is the image of God, should shine unto them’ (2
Corinthians 4: 34). ‘Wherein in time past
ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now
worketh in the children of disobedience’ (Ephesians
2: 2). ‘Put on the whole
armour of God, that
ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not
against flesh and blood, but against principalities,
against powers, against
the rulers of the darkness of this world, against
spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto
you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able
to withstand in the evil day, and having done
all, to stand ... Above all, taking the shield of faith,
wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery
darts of the wicked’ (Ephesians 6: 11-13, 16). ‘Now the Spirit
speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart [apostatise] from the faith, giving heed to
seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils’ (1 Timothy 4: 1).
‘Submit
yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will
flee from you’ (James 4: 7). ‘And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness (or
the arms of the wicked one)’ (1 John 5:
19).
All these verses carry only one
meaning and that is that the devil is UNBOUND, UNCHAINED
and to a large degree UNRESTRICTED in his activities against
the people of God. He presently poses a
major threat to Christ’s cause and is depicted as such by the post-Calvary
writers of the New Testament and his
activities are in complete contrast to that restraint which the a-millennialist
says is presently imposed upon him as set forth in Revelation 20: 14. How can this be so if the restraints depicted
by John in the Apocalypse were imposed at
The answer is obvious, surely.
These verses all speak of a very active devil and the people of God are
exhorted by Christ to resist him and battle against him. How would that be at all possible if we are
presently in that era when the devil is bound and chained?
4
If the events of Revelation 20: 14 are current, how can it refer to those who
suffered death under antichrist as having been resurrected and reigning [upon and over this restored earth (Rom.
8: 19-22)] with Christ?
The resurrected
saints are described as those ‘which had not
worshipped the beast, neither
his image, neither had received his mark upon
their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and
reigned with Christ a thousand years.’ If we are presently in the period referred to
in these verses, and we must be if verses 1
and 2 refer to
5
If Revelation 20: 14 refers to Christ’s victory over the devil at
Does this
mean that there is to be a rescinding of
I repeat, the circulation of
such an absurd and unscriptural notion as
that propounded by the a-millennialist with regards Revelation
20: 1-4, is in itself a clear evidence that the old
propagator of falsehoods, or as the Saviour calls him, the father of lies (John 8: 44), is far removed from imprisonment but is
very actively pursuing his plan of deceit [in the
lives of many of God’s redeemed people].*
-------
FOOTNOTE.
That
many earnest Christian people are thinking these thoughts and putting them into
their prayers is borne in upon me just now from what I read and hear. A few hours ago I was conversing with an old
and valued friend who rather startled me by asking whether I did not deem it
possible that the ancient Christian belief in a reign of antichrist might
becoming literally true. I sat silent,
pondering the interrogatory, and my friend continued to speak somewhat in these
terms:-
“There would seem to be a gathering up and concentration of
the forces of evil in the world to-day, an open and undisguised trial of
strength between the powers of light and the powers of darkness, between Christ
and the Man of Sin, between titanic spiritual realities in the visible and
invisible worlds with humanity as the battleground? The wicked and unscrupulous men of blood who
keep millions upon millions of human beings in chains, wrath, and agony may be
but the puppets and emissaries of what both our Lord and His Apostles spoke of
as the prince of this world and by other titles, a tremendous mighty and
spiritual power contending against God. Is the present hour a specially critical one
in human history whose outcome will either be a new manifestation of Christ or
a fresh start for civilization upon new and better lines or a period of woe and
destruction such as has never been known since the fall of the Roman empire and
attended by an influx of such miseries as imagination staggers to contemplate?”
I have a
misgiving that my dear old friend is right and that civilization is at a new
parting of the ways: victory in the balance - a set-back for all that the name
of Christ stands for, or such a revival of vital religion
as mankind has never known. There will be a final glorious advent, a
complete ending of the present dispensation. Of course there will be; the Church has never surrendered that expectation nor can she do so and
remain faithful to her divine commission.
- R. J. CAMPBELL, D.D.