What is the Millennial Reign? Revelation 20:1-10, Part 2
The Revelation of Jesus the Messiah confirms the sovereignty of God (God will win!), confronts believers with the sin of their assimilation to culture (like in Laodicea), and comforts believers with a peek into the reality of the faithful dead (those who have died in the Lord).
In the previous blog on the millennial reign in Revelation 20, I concluded that the millennium is contemporary with the present age. We are presently living in the millennial reign of the Messiah. Revelation 19 depicts the final battle between God and the dragon (Satan), which is known as Armageddon in Revelation 16 and is the same battle as Revelation 20:7-10.
Revelation 20:1-6 does not describe the situation after the second coming of Christ. Rather, it describes the status of the saints and the limitations of Satan prior to the final battle. This is recapitulation. For example, just at Revelation 7 depicts the status of the saints prior to and during the time of the unsealing of the seven seals in Revelation 6, and Revelation 12 depicts events prior to the seven trumpets in Revelation 8-11, so Revelation 20:1-6 portrays the status of the saints prior to and up to the time of the final battle in Revelation 16, 19, and 20:7-10.
This is the flow of Revelation 20:1-10.
- Satan is chained and imprisoned to prevent a gathering for a final battle (20:1-3).
- The souls of dead saints reign on thrones in heaven for a thousand years (20:4-6).
- Afterwards Satan is released to gather the nations for the final battle (20:7-10).
Recognizing recapitulation as a literary and structural device, I believe (1) the binding of Satan is something that happens before the final battle, (2) the reign of the saints is contemporary with the present, and (3) the release of Satan is something yet future when he will gather the nations for the final battle. It may be depicted like this:
Future: The final battle in Revelation 19 (also 16).
Present: The binding of Satan in 20:1-3.
Present: The reign of the saints in 20:4-6.
Future: The final battle in Revelation 20:7-10.
This approach to Revelation 20:1-10 raises some significant and difficult but not insurmountable questions. Perhaps the primary question is the one I will address first.
- What is the binding of Satan?
It strikes many readers as rather odd to say that Satan is presently bound (chained) and imprisoned in the Abyss. Indeed, we know Satan is active in the world from other texts of Scripture (for example, Ephesians 6:11-12). This seems rather unquestionable and indubitable.
So, what could it possibly mean to say that Satan is presently chained and imprisoned while still actively assaulting and devouring the children of God?
Considering the use of recapitulation in Revelation, the parallel between Revelation 12 and 20 provides a helpful understanding of the binding of Satan. The chart below notes some of the linguistic and conceptual parallels between the two texts. First, however, let us consider what is happening in Revelation 12.
Revelation 12:1-6 opens with a woman who gives birth to a male child. A red dragon attempts to kill the child who was destined “to rule all the nations with a rod of iron.” That child is the Messiah. God delivered the child and brought him into the heavenly throne room. The woman fled into the wilderness.
In Revelation 12:7-12 the dragon pursues the child but is cast out of heaven and “thrown down to the earth.” With this act, “a loud voice in heaven” proclaimed, “Now have come salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Messiah, for the accuser of our comrades has been thrown down, who accuse them day and night before our God.” In this way, the saints overcome “by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony” since they did not “cling to life in the face of death.” The martyrs defeated the dragon through the Lamb and their testimony. However, “woe to the earth and to the sea, for the devil has come down to you with great wrath.”
In Revelation12:13-17 the dragon, now confined to the earth, pursued the woman but could not overcome her. Consequently, angry at the woman, the dragon made war on her children, that is, “those who keep the commandments of God and hold the testimony of Jesus.”
In effect, Israel (Mary) gives birth to the Messiah (Jesus), and Satan attempts to destroy the Messiah (like Herod and Pilate did, for example) but is unsuccessful since ultimately the Messiah ascends into heaven and is enthroned at the right hand of God. Consequently, Satan is thrown out of heaven where he can no longer accuse the saints before God. However, he is still active on the earth to pursue the children of the woman (the people of God) who are the followers of the Lamb living on the earth.
In this picture, Satan is limited. He can no longer accuse the saints. He can no longer make war in heaven. He is no longer present in the heavenly council. He is limited to the earth, and he cannot kill the woman (the people of God) though he may kill her children (followers of Jesus). But when the followers of Jesus are martyred, they overcome Satan and live in the throne room of God where Satan is no longer present or active (cf. Revelation 7).
Moreover, something decisive has also happened. “Now,” Revelation 12:10 says, “have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Messiah.” The Messiah has been enthroned at the right hand of God to rule the nations, and the kingdom of God has come. The enthronement of the Messiah inaugurates the kingdom of God.
This authority binds and limits Satan. The evil one can no longer accuse God’s saints, cannot defeat the kingdom of God (it’s a done deal!), and cannot gather the nations for “the battle” yet, even though he can make war generally against the people of God. He can kill saints, but he cannot destroy the church/renewed Israel (the people of God).
This chart parallels Revelation 20:1-3 with Revelation 12:7-17.
| Revelation 20:1-6 | Revelation 12:7-17 |
| I saw an angel coming down, holding in his hand a key to the bottomless pit and a great chain (20:1). | Michael and his angels fought against the dragon (12:7). |
| dragon, ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan (20:2). | The great dragon . . . that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan (12:9). |
| Satan deceives the nations (20:3). | Satan is one who “deceives the whole world” (12:9). |
| The angel seized the dragon, bound him, and threw him into the pit (20:2-3). | The great dragon was thrown down to the earth (12:9). |
| Satan is bound so that he might not deceive the nations (20:3), that is, he could not destroy the people of God and could not gather the nations for “the battle.” | When the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child whom he could not defeat (12:13). The dragon then made war on those who kept the children of the woman but could not defeat the woman herself (12:17) |
The kingdom of God has been launched, and Satan has lost power in heaven, though he is still active upon the earth. In Luke 10:18, when the disciples exercised power over the demons, Jesus said, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning.” Satan will not be able to stop or destroy the kingdom of God on the earth because he has lost all power and authority in heaven. You might say he has lost his place in the divine council. The accuser (the satan) was once a member of the “sons of God” that gathered in the throne room in Job 1.
Jesus tells us that his ministry is designed to bind Satan. In Matthew 12:29 Jesus uses the example of binding a strong man before plundering his house. The word “bind” in Matthew 12:29 is the same word that appears in Revelation 20:2. Jesus came to bind Satan! This begins during his ministry, and it is accomplished through his death, resurrection, and enthronement. In this way, Satan is fundamentally restricted or imprisoned. He is bound over to the earth and has no authority over the people of God, though he still seeks to deconvert or kill as many as he can.
Why not simply destroy Satan at this point? Why is Satan, though bound, permitted to roam the earth and kill the followers of the Lamb? That is a problematic theodic question, to be sure. Perhaps we might say, as the book of Revelation indicates, that God is providing space for repentance on the part of the inhabitants of the earth (see Revelation 9:20, 21; 16:9, 11). This delay provides opportunity for the proclamation of the gospel and the hope for repentance by those who dwell on the earth (as in Revelation 14:6).
- How long is the millennium?
Obviously, the text refers to a “thousand years” (20:2, 3). This immediately raises the question of whether the number is symbolic or literal, which raises the question of how numbers are used in Revelation (as well as in apocalyptic literature itself). The question, then, is how do we understand the use of numbers in apocalyptic literature?
Shane Wood’s language is helpful (Thinning the Veil), “In Revelation, as in all apocalyptic literature, numbers should be weighed, not measured” (Kindle, p. 127). In other words, the numbers are not so much about quantity (the exact number of years or people as in the 144,000 in Revelation 7 and 14) but quality or significance. A thousand years represents a long period of time which saints enjoy in the presence of God. A thousand is 10 x 10 x 10, which is an intensification of a perfect or complete number. Its function is to encourage the saints that God’s reign is real, long, and momentous.
Thousand, in many places, is a symbolic number in biblical literature. For example,
- “keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, yet by no means clearing the guilty, but visiting the iniquity of the parents upon the children and the children’s children to the third and fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:7)
- “May the Lord, the God of your ancestors, increase you a thousand times more and bless you, as he has promised you!” (Deuteronomy 1:11)
- “The faithful God who maintains covenant loyalty with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations.” (Deuteronomy 7:9)
- “How could one have routed a thousand, and two put a myriad to flight, unless their Rock had sold them.” (Deuteronomy 32:30)
- “Remember his covenant forever, the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations.” (1 Chronicles 16:15; see also Psalm 105:8)
- “With mighty chariotry, twice ten thousand, thousands upon thousands, the Lord came from Sinai into the holy place.” (Psalm 68:17)
- “For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.” (Psalm 84:10).
- “For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past, or like a watch in the night.” (Psalm 90:4)
- “A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.” (Psalm 91:7)
- “Even though he should live a thousand years twice over, yet enjoy no good—do not all go to one place?” (Ecclesiastes 6:6)
- “A thousand thousands served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood attending him.” (Daniel 7:10)
- “with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day.” (2 Peter 3:8).
The number should not be counted but weighed as a piece of apocalyptic symbolism. This fits the symbolism of a symbolic key to a symbolic abyss, the binding of Satan with a symbolic chain, and the symbolism of Satan’s names (dragon, serpent, devil), and the symbolism of a literal locking of the pit. A “thousand years” indicates a quality, that is, a long period of time. It does not mean a literal period of an exact one thousand revolutions of the earth around the sun.
- Where is the millennium?
John saw “thrones,” and the saints reigned with Christ upon these thrones, and these reigning saints were given authority to judge.
Where are the “thrones” in Revelation, and where are the martyred (beheaded) saints in Revelation? The martyrs are under the altar in the throne room of God (Revelation 6:9-11), and the thrones are in heaven, unless Revelation is describing the thrones of Satan and his allies.
Thrones in heaven appear in Revelation 1:4; 3:21 (2x); 4:2-6 (11x); 4:9-10 (3x); 5:1, 6, 7, 11, 13; 6:16; 7:9, 10, 11 (2x), 15 (2 x), 17; 8:3; 11:18; 12:5; 14:3; 19:4, 5; [20:4?]; 20:11-12; 21:3, 5; 22:1, 3. All these thrones belong to God, Jesus, or the saints, and they are all in heaven.
Thrones on the earth appear in Revelation 2:13 (“throne of Satan”), 13:2 (the dragon’s throne); 16:10 (“throne of the beast”). These thrones in the hands of evil powers, and they are on the earth.
To what do the thrones in Revelation 20:4 refer? It is the reign of the saints with Christ. All such references in Revelation are in heaven. All the thrones upon the earth are under the power and authority of Satan and his allies.
The beheaded or martyrs reign with Christ on heavenly thrones. This parallels John’s description of where those who die in the Lord are. They are in the throne room of God in Revelation 7, 14, and 15. The same is true in Revelation 20:4-6.
Moreover, it is possible that these “thrones” are an allusion to Daniel 7:9-10 where the divine council, sitting on thrones in the presence of the “Ancient One on his throne,” is gathered to receive the ascension of the Messiah (Son of Man) who receives authority and power. Such a reading comports well with seeing Revelation 20:1-3 as the binding of Satan at the enthronement of the Messiah. If this is the case, Revelation 20:4-6 takes place in heaven. In this scenario, it may be that the “thrones” are specifically the divine council (much like the 4 living beasts and 24 elders of Revelation 4), and the martyred saints take their place among them in the throne room of God.
- Who reigns with Jesus in the millennium?
Revelation 20:4 identifies the reigning saints as:
- Those who have been beheaded for their testimony to Jesus and for the word of God.
- Those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or hands.
The question is whether this description only includes the martyrs, or does it include all those who did not receive the mark of the beast? Do the above bullet points represent one group or two? Grammatically, it could go either way.
I think it is best decided by a major interest that Revelation has had from the beginning. That interest is this, where are the saints who died? They are described in Revelation 7, 14, and 15. “Blessed are the dead who from now on die in the Lord,” Revelation 14:13.
Revelation is not solely focused on the martyrs, though they are a primary concern. Rather, Revelation describes all who have “overcome” and lived faithfully as followers of the Lamb. This is the group gathered in Revelation 14:1-5. When one of the 144,000 dies (a number that represents the people of God on the earth), they are blessed, whether martyred or not.
- What is the first resurrection and the second death?
Concerning those who were beheaded and did not worship the beast, Revelation 20:4-6 says, “They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. Over these the second death had no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him a thousand years.”
This is a much-disputed text. I will not address all the possible interpretations and objections. The view I present here is ably defended by many interpreters, including Kline’s article on the first resurrection and Storms in Kingdom Come. Given the controversy and the options available, I don’t think one can be certain of their interpretation. I am not.
At the same time, if the millennium is the present age, and the binding of Satan is the limiting of Satan’s power by the enthronement of the Messiah, and the reign of the martyred saints with Messiah is in heaven, then it seems to me that the best explanation is that the “first resurrection” refers the same thing that Revelation 7:9-14 describes. “These are they who have come out of the great ordeal [that is, they died, JMH]; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” In Revelation 20:4-6, these are those who have been beheaded and have been seated on thrones to reign with the Messiah in heaven for a thousand years (the extent of the present age). Through their physical death, they came to life in the throne room of God.
I think the language adequately fits this point. While a first resurrection and second death are named in the text, there is no explicit mention of a first death or a second resurrection, though they seem implied.
| First Resurrection: came to life in the presence of God in 20:4-6 to reign with the Messiah for a thousand years. | (Second Resurrection)—the rest of the dead [the non-saints] came to life in 20:11-15 after the thousand years were over |
| (First Death): those who were beheaded and did not worship the beast. | Second death—the eternal destiny of those who don’t share in the first resurrection |
Those who experience the first resurrection are those who, in death, wake up alive in the presence of God and are enthroned with the Messiah. In death, they come alive! They will not experience a second death, but they will experience a second resurrection (the resurrection of their bodies) when the Messiah comes again. At that same time, the “rest of the dead” will be raised to face judgment (the second death) while the resurrected saints will inherit the new heaven and new earth (eternal life).
The dead in Christ are alive and reigning with Christ! Comfort one another, brothers and sisters, with these words!
- Why is Satan released? And What does it Mean?
We might rephrase that question, like Shane Woods does, “Why must (δεῖ) Satan be released?” (Revelation 20:3).
If one follows the path I have laid out (the millennium is the present age as the dead saints reign with the Messiah in heaven), there are a couple of ways of thinking about the release of Satan.
Satan is released to gather the nations to do battle with the people of God (just as in 16:14; 19:19), and this battle will end badly as the wrath of God is poured out on the enemies of God (6:17; 11:18; 16:19; 19:15). The purpose of Satan’s release, then, is no mystery; it is explicitly stated. He is released to gather his army for the final battle.
So, why is Satan released at all? Why does not God simply end the thousand year reign without a final battle? Why fight a final battle when God and the saints have been fighting this battle all along and “overcoming” Satan and his allies.
Some, who follow the path I have laid out here, believe this final battle is when the “man of sin/lawlessness” will arise (2 Thessalonians 2:3-6) whom the Messiah will destroy at his second coming. Whatever or whomever the “man of sin” is, I don’t think we must understand Revelation 20:7-10 in this way as if we are waiting for a final cataclysmic moment that announces the second coming of Christ. Whether there is one or not, I am not disputing here, but I think there is a better way to understand Revelation 20:7-10. In other words, perhaps there is no battle at all! This raises an alternative understanding.
Why must Satan be released? Why is this necessary? Where does this necessity lie?
Shane J. Wood argues that while Satan is released from his prison, he is not unchained. Satan is released not to exercise power in order to engage in battle, but he is released so that his power might be mocked and finally defeated in God’s triumphal procession that leads to his execution.
Rome celebrated over 400 triumphal processions in its history. This was a public parade that honored a military victory and its leader (whether general or emperor). The spoils of war and captured enemy soldiers would be paraded through the streets. Typically, the soldiers would be forced to reenact the battle, which led to their deaths. The enemy leader would come last in the procession as he walked just before the chariot of the military victor. When they reached the end point of the parade, the enemy leader was executed.
Wood argues that Revelation 20:7-10 is God’s triumphal procession where a mock battle is convened and the leader of the enemy is executed. I will not take the time to fully explore this view, but I find it quite credible. You can read or listen to his explanation in several places. He defends this view in his Thinning the Veil as well in this academic article. You can also listen to his explanation in several places: here, here, and here.
Conclusion
A deeply pastoral point arises from this reading of Revelation 20. I think it is one of the purposes of the book of Revelation itself.
The Revelation of Jesus the Messiah confirms the sovereignty of God (God will win!), confronts believers with the sin of their assimilation to culture (like in Laodicea), and comforts believers with a peek into the reality of the faithful dead (those who have died in the Lord).
Where are the martyrs? Where are those who have died in the Lord? What are they doing?
Revelation 20:1-6 answers those questions (along with Revelation 7, 14, 15). The martyred saints (and all those who have overcome the beast) reign with the Messiah in heaven! They are alive in the throne room of God.
Thanks be to God!