The
Millennium Period
Although in this pamphlet it
was hardly possible to avoid a comparison of the views and interpretations here
offered with those of the Premillennial brethren, yet its contents are not
chiefly of a controversial nature. Its chief purpose is to give an
interpretation of a passage of Holy Scripture that may be regarded as
difficult, but which is, nevertheless, part of the revelation of those things that
must shortly come to pass. And they are revealed not, indeed, in order that
God's people in the world might be able to forecast an exact history of the
future in every detail, but that they might recognize in the events of history
the things foretold, and believe that even in the darkest periods of the
history of the world God is realizing His counsel of redemption. It is thus
that the Saviour motivates His foretelling the disciples the dark period in
which He must descend into the deep and awful way of His amazing suffering, in
which He must "go away" from them in order that He "might come
again" to them: "And now I have told you before it come to pass, that
when it is come to pass, ye might believe." And such must needs be the
purpose of all prophecy. It does not satisfy an unholy curiosity. It does not
enable us to write the history of the world even till the final coming of the
Lord before its realization. But it is a light shining in a dark place illuminating
all the way of the Church through suffering to glory sufficiently for the
people of God to recognize in all the events of history the realization of
God's counsel and, therefore, to walk in hope. And this pamphlet purposes to
set forth what light is shed upon the future realization of God's Kingdom in
the world by the well-known passage from Revelation 20.
Following the text of the passage we must
consider:
1. What is signified by the
binding of Satan.
2.
What must be understood by the reign of the saints with Christ.
3. What is meant by the final rebellion of Gog and
Magog and their destruction.
1. John writes that he "saw an angel come down
from heaven, having the key of the pit and a great chain in his
hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil and
Satan, 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". It is evident that in these words the seer of
Patmos describes not what he saw historically happen but what he beheld in a
vision. A strictly literal interpretation of the text therefore, is not in
harmony with the nature of the passage, nor is it possible.
No
one thinks of the possibility of a literal interpretation, when in Rev. 13:1
the prophet tells us that he "stood upon the sand of the sea and saw a
beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his
horns ten crowns and upon his heads the names of blasphemy". It is
understood without difficulty, that all this was seen by John in a vision.
And the same is true of Rev. 20:1-10. It is not contradicting but correctly
interpretating Scripture, when we say that John did not actually see an angel
come down, with a great chain in his hand and the key of the pit,
that he did not actually see that the devil was bound and shut up in the
pit, but that he saw all this as it was represented fn a vision.
Neither must a vision be interpreted as if it were a mere and direct
foretelling of events as they shall actually happen. It would not be
interpreting but doing violence to Scripture if we should paraphrase these
verses in the following fashion:
"Then shall an angel come down from heaven with the key of the pit and a great chain in his hand and he shall lay hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan, and he shall bind him a thousand years." Such a paraphrasing of the text entirely disregards the fact, that the passage speaks of a vision. The question is rather: What is the central idea of the vision? What fact does John here behold as being realized before his eyes ? And the answer to this question is readily given: That the Devil is bound by a divine decree, so that he is prevented from accomplishing his purpose. The angel coming down from God to carry out this decree, the key of the pit, the great chain, the shutting and the sealing, all these may be regarded as belonging in the form of the vision only;
but
they all serve to emphasize the fact, that Satan is bound by a divine decree,
securely and effectually, so that, during the period of his confinement he
cannot carry out his evil purposes.
The question, however, is suggested not only, but also very definitely answered by the text, whether this imprisonment of Satan, this secure confinement of the Devil, must be regarded as absolute and complete, so that he is restrained in all his activities, or as relative and in part, so that the restraint placed upon him limits him only in a certain direction and dooms him to partial inactivity only. To this question the text replies without a doubt, that the restraint is partial and with a view to a certain sphere of action. For, the purpose of the binding of Satan is designated in vs. 3 as being "that he may deceive the nations no more". And in vs. 8 we are informed still more definitely, that when he shall be loosed for a little season, he "shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them to battle, the number of whom is as the sand of the sea". If we take these two passages in connection with each other, it may be regarded as established: (1) that the binding of Satan is limited to certain nations, which are called Gog and
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