Discussion of Revelation Passage - Research Paper Example

? Revelation 20 6 (the millennium) Of Your School Within By (Month, Year) Revelation 20:1-6 (the millennium) Revelation 20: 1-6 is the only passage present in the whole Bible that talks about the reign of thousand years. This passage being discussed here is divided into two parts (1-3 and 4-6); the first part described the binding of the Satan, whereas the second part describes the reign of Christ for the period of thousand years. The pre-millennial explanation of the passage explains the millennial reign of the Messiah which will occur after His second coming on this Earth. The passage prior to Revelation 20 also highlights the Second coming of the Messiah. The events described in Revelation 20 will chronologically occur after the events of Revelation 19 which concludes that the events described in Revelation 20 will take place after the second coming of Jesus Christ. Revelation chapter 20-22 are indeed based on the last of the seven sections of the book and it takes the reader back to the era of the starting of the New Testament1. The proper interpretation of the passage cannot be extracted from the above explanation however one may determine that Revelation chapter 20 is based upon the failure and final defeat of Satan. However one cannot deny the fact that the doom of Satan has begun with the first coming of the Messiah and it will finish with His second coming on the Day of Judgment. Revelation verse 4-6 emphasizes on the millennial reign that will take place prior to the second coming of the Christ. Verses 11-15 of Revelation 20 give evidence of this event by saying that the Day of Judgment is said to arrive after the era of the thousand year reign of the Christ. Beside the Book of Revelation, other Books of the New Testament also provide the link between the Day of Doom and the Second coming of the Messiah especially Jude chapter 14 and 15 and Matthew chapter 16 and 25. All these cases present in the New Testament including the scriptures of Revelation indicate the fact that the Christ’s reign of thousand years will occur prior to His Second coming. There isn’t any possibility that this reign will take place after the Second coming2. After having a close look at the first part of Revelation chapter 20 i.e. verses 1-3, we may interpret that these verses explain the binding of Saturn. “The dragon” in these verses is used as symbol for “Satan” or “Devil”. These verses say that Satan will be bound for a period of thousand years and then will be sent to a place named “The Abyss”. The reason behind binding the Satan for the period of thousand years is that he may no longer mislead the people of the world, as he has been doing from the time the world was created3. When we open the Book of Revelation we can see that the book is full of symbols and therefore the period thousand years used in the passage cannot be interpreted in its factual sense. As we know that number ten represents wholeness therefore thousand the multiple of “ten” is used in the passage as a symbol for a very long, yet for a complete period of time. According to the explanation and the symbols present in the Revelation one may conclude that the time span of thousand years discussed in the passage covers the events of the first coming of Jesus and extends to the events of His second coming. “The lake of Fire” mentioned in the scriptures is the symbol for the place of Judgment which is the Abyss. Revelation chapter 20: 1-3 states that Abyss is the place where Satan will be bound for about thousand years. Abyss is considered as a figurative description used for a place where demonic activities will take place for a millennium. After the era of Abraham, the whole world except Israel was under the rule of Satan. As mentioned in the Old Testament the Israelites were considered the recipients of God’s messages. They were fully conscious about the extent to which they were indulged in sins and they were also aware of the ways through which they may seek clemency and salvation. In the same post-Abraham era, the other nations of the world were not aware about the ways of salvation like Israel was and therefore they remained in the darkness of ignorance and sin. However any special person from these nations would stand and ask for the God’s special revelation (Acts Ch 17 Verse 30). We can conclude that in this era the nations of the world were being misled by Satan in the same way as he deceived Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden4. Before the ascending of Christ to Heaven, He gave his disciples a great task to go and make all the nation of world his disciples (Matthew 28:19). At this point of time a complex questions was raised in the mind of the disciples that how can this task can be achieved if the Satan continues to mislead the nation the way he is doing from the time the Earth was created? (Revelation 20:1-3). John provides a quite reassuring answer to the question raised by the disciples. He said that in the Era of Gospel, Satan will not be able to mislead the nation as he has been doing till now for he will be bound by the power of God and because of this the disciples will be able to preach the word of God to all the nations of the world. This does not mean that Satan does not have any power in the Era of Gospel, however because he has been bound by Christ therefore he will not be able to restrict people from learning the Word of Gospel. Later in the passage it is mentioned that Satan will be released as soon as the thousand years are over and he will again deceive the people and will influence them to fight against each other. In this Era the people of God will also be destroyed by the followers of Satan (Revelation 20: 7-9). However this power of deceiving the nations will not be provided to Satan, during the binding period. We may hence conclude that in the Era of Gospel Satan cannot stop the disciples to spread the word of God and he cannot deceive the nations to attack the Churches and God’s followers. Indications are present in the New Testament which point toward the fact that Satan will be bound in the Era of the first coming of the Messiah. We can read in the Gospel that Jesus was accused by the Pharisees for casting out the demonic spirits by the help of Satan where Jesus said, “How can one enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man?” (Matthew12:29) One interesting fact that can be seen in the Gospel of Matthew is that binding of a strong man in the passage is defined in the same manner as the binding of Satan in Revelation 20. We can also see that Jesus has also bound Satan when he denied him on the roof of the Temple. When Jesus casted out the demon he showed us the symbol of victory. This casting out of demons can be linked to the binding of Satan in the passage of revelation which indicates that the Kingdom of God is about to come therefore the words of God can now be preached to all the nations of the World. In the New Testament when the disciples of Jesus returned from preaching they said to Jesus that even the Demons have surrendered to the Word of God. Jesus answered that He has seen Satan falling from heaven like lightening (Luke 10: 17-18). These words of Jesus can be interpreted as: because of the preaching of disciples in the name of Jesus, the kingdom of Satan is weakened and this spreading of Gospel has imposed certain restriction of his power. Here we may link the fall of the Satan with the preaching of the disciples. It has been mentioned above that Revelation 20: 1-3 talks about the thousand years reign of the Messiah. We may now observe that Revelation 20: 4-6 also points towards the same things. It can be assumed that the thousand years described in verses 1-3 are different from those described in verses 4-6. However the scripture does not provide any valid reason as to why we must considered this time span different and hence it is a rational decision to concern these years as same. This period of thousand years revolve around the entire dispensation of the New Testament taking into account all the events from the first coming of Jesus to His second coming5. Revelation 20:4 talks about the thrones of the ones who have been given the authority to Judge. We can observe that the word “Throne” is also used in several other parts of the Book of Revelation. The word throne is used 47 times in the Book of Revelation, pointing towards the three thrones which are present in Heaven. John mentions in his Book that he sees the souls of the ones being executed. Here we can observe that the direction of John’s vision is shifted towards the Heaven. With the Biblical evidence we may now conclude that the thousand years highlighted in Verse 1-3 describe the events of Earth, while verse 4-6 depict that of the Heaven. In his vision John sees that the ones who are given the authority to judge are sitting on the throne. As one can see, the main events in the Book of Revelation are related to justice and the persecution of the followers of Christ. John’s vision confirms that the ones who are sitting on the thrones and judging are also reigning with Christ. This reigning hence gives them the power to Judge. However it is not clear that the ones sitting on the thrones are making Judgments for the earthly matters or they are making judgments in companion with the Christ. In this passage of Revelation, reigning with the Christ indicates that the chosen ones will have a piece in the judgment activities of Messiah. Another important question that rises here is that who will be seated on the thrones and will be judging along with Christ? The answer to this is also given in the rest of the verse indicating that the ones who are executed for the testimony of Christ and for preaching the words of God will be seated on thrones next to the Christ. John addresses such people as “beheaded soul”. The word soul here can be interpreted in either way and we may consider them as dead or as living. In his vision John can see the souls of ones who are persecuted for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus, the believers who have suffered throughout their lives and the ones who died as the faithful followers of the Christ. When the Book of Revelation was being written by John, many of the followers were being persecuted because of their faith in Christ. The vision of John was yet a relief to the relatives and family of these Martyrs as He saw them seated on the thrones judging in the Kingdom of God. John in verse 5 also indicates that the dead will be resurrected at the end of the thousand years. In verse 6 John says that the ones who are the part of the first resurrection of Christ are blessed because they are the ones who will be seated on the thrones. John in this passage emphasized on the period of thousand years and depicts events that took place in Heaven and the Earth. The passage however does not provide any evidence about the earthly reign of Christ but emphasized on His reign in Heaven along with His followers. Bibliography Bock, Darrell L. Three Views on the Millennium and Beyond. Zondervan, 2010. Burney, Gerry. Revelation, Apostasy, End, Times, & This Generation. Xulon Press, 2009. Lioy, Dan. The Book of Revelation in Christological Focus. Peter Lang Pub Incorporated, 2003. Mathewson, Dave L. "A Re-Examination Of The Millennium In Rev 20:1-6: Consummation And Recapitulation -- By: Dave L. Mathewson." Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, 2001: 238. Powell, Charles. Progression Versus Recapitulation in Revelation 20:1-6: Some Overlooked Arguments. August 30, 2004. https://bible.org/article/progression-versus-recapitulation-revelation-201-6-some-overlooked-arguments (accessed September 22, 2013). Read More