Revelation 20

Re 20:1-15.

SATAN

BOUND, AND THE

FIRST-RISEN

SAINTS

REIGN WITH

CHRIST, A

THOUSAND

YEARS;

SATAN

LOOSED,

GATHERS THE

NATIONS,

GOG AND

MAGOG,

ROUND THE

CAMP OF THE

SAINTS, AND

IS

FINALLY

CONSIGNED TO THE

LAKE OF

FIRE; THE

GENERAL

RESURRECTION AND

LAST

JUDGMENT.

1. The destruction of his representatives, the beast and the

false prophet, to whom he had given his power, throne, and

authority, is followed by the binding of Satan himself for a

thousand years.

the key of the bottomless pit--now transferred from Satan's

hands, who had heretofore been permitted by God to use it in letting

loose plagues on the earth; he is now to be made to feel himself the

torment which he had inflicted on men, but his full torment is not

until he is cast into "the lake of fire"

(Re 20:10).

2. that old--ancient serpent

(Re 12:9).

thousand years--As seven mystically implies universality,

so a thousand implies perfection, whether in good or evil

[AQUINAS on ch. 11]. Thousand symbolizes

that the world is perfectly leavened and pervaded by the divine; since

thousand is ten, the number of the world, raised to the

third power, three being the number of God

[AUBERLEN]. It may denote literally also a

thousand years.

3. shut him--A, B, Vulgate, Syriac, and

ANDREAS omit "him."

set a seal upon him--Greek, "over him," that is, sealed

up the door of the abyss over his head. A surer seal to keep him from

getting out than his seal over Jesus in the tomb of Joseph, which was

burst on the resurrection morn. Satan's binding at' this juncture is

not arbitrary, but is the necessary consequence of the events

(Re 19:20);

just as Satan's being cast out of heaven, where he had previously been

the accuser of the brethren, was the legitimate judgment which passed

on him through the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ

(Re 12:7-10).

Satan imagined that he had overcome Christ on Golgotha, and that his

power was secure for ever, but the Lord in death overcame him, and by

His ascension as our righteous Advocate cast out Satan, the accuser

from heaven. Time was given on earth to make the beast and harlot

powerful, and then to concentrate all his power in Antichrist. The

Antichristian kingdom, his last effort, being utterly destroyed by

Christ's mere appearing, his power on earth is at an end. He had

thought to destroy God's people on earth by Antichristian persecutions

(just as he had thought previously to destroy Christ); but the Church

is not destroyed from the earth but is raised to rule over it, and

Satan himself is shut up for a thousand years in the "abyss"

(Greek for "bottomless pit"), the preparatory prison to the

"lake of fire," his final doom. As before he ceased by Christ's

ascension to be an accuser in heaven, so during the millennium he

ceases to be the seducer and the persecutor on earth. As long as the

devil rules in the darkness of the world, we live in an atmosphere

impregnated with deadly elements. A mighty purification of the air will

be effected by Christ's coming. Though sin will not be absolutely

abolished--for men will still be in the flesh

(Isa 65:20)

--sin will no longer be a universal power, for the flesh is not any

longer seduced by Satan. He will not be, as now, "the god and prince of

the world"--nor will the world "lie in the wicked one"--the flesh will

become ever more isolated and be overcome. Christ will reign with His

transfigured saints over men in the flesh [AUBERLEN]. This will be the manifestation of "the world

to come," which has been already set up invisibly in the saints, amidst

"this world"

(2Co 4:4;

Heb 2:5; 5:5).

The Jewish Rabbis thought, as the world was created in six days and on

the seventh God rested, so there would be six millenary periods,

followed by a sabbatical millennium. Out of seven years every seventh

is the year of remission, so out of the seven thousand years of the

world the seventh millenary shall be the millenary of remission. A

tradition in the house of Elias, A.D. 200, states

that the world is to endure six thousand years; two thousand before the

law, two thousand under the law, and two thousand under Messiah.

Compare Note, see on

Heb 4:9

and

Heb 4:9,

Margin; see on

Re 14:13.

PAPIAS, JUSTIN

MARTYR, IRENÆUS, and

CYPRIAN, among the earliest Fathers, all held the

doctrine of a millennial kingdom on earth; not till millennial views

degenerated into gross carnalism was this doctrine abandoned.

that he should deceive--so A. But B reads, "that he deceive"

(Greek, "plana," for "planeesee").

and--so Coptic and ANDREAS. But A,

B, and Vulgate omit "and."

4, 5. they sat--the twelve apostles, and the saints in general.

judgment was given unto there--(See on

Da 7:22).

The office of judging was given to them. Though in one sense having to

stand before the judgment-seat of Christ, yet in another sense they "do

not come into judgment (Greek), but have already passed from

death unto life."

souls--This term is made a plea for denying the literality of

the first resurrection, as if the resurrection were the spiritual one

of the souls of believers in this life; the life and reign being

that of the soul raised in this life from the death of sin by vivifying

faith. But "souls" expresses their disembodied state (compare

Re 6:9)

as John saw them at first; "and they lived" implies their coming to

life in the body again, so as to be visible, as the phrase,

Re 20:5,

"this is the first resurrection," proves; for as surely as "the rest of

the dead lived not (again) until," &c., refers to the bodily

general resurrection, so must the first resurrection refer to

the body. This also accords with

1Co 15:23,

"They that are Christ's at His coming." Compare

Ps 49:11-15.

From

Re 6:9,

I infer that "souls" is here used in the strict sense of spirits

disembodied when first seen by John; though doubtless "souls" is

often used in general for persons, and even for dead

bodies.

beheaded--literally, "smitten with an axe"; a Roman

punishment, though crucifixion, casting to beasts, and burning, were

the more common modes of execution. The guillotine in revolutionary

France was a revival of the mode of capital punishment of pagan

imperial Rome. Paul was beheaded, and no doubt shall share

the first resurrection, in accordance with his prayer that he

"might attain unto the resurrection from out of the rest of the dead"

(Greek, "exanastasis"). The above facts may account for

the specification of this particular kind of punishment.

for . . . for--Greek, "for the sake of"; on

account of"; "because of."

and which--Greek, "and the which." And prominent

among this class (the beheaded), such as did not worship the beast. So

Re 1:7,

Greek, "and the which," or "and such as," particularizes

prominently among the general class those that follow in the

description [TREGELLES]. The extent of the

first resurrection is not spoken of here. In

1Co 15:23, 51;

1Th 4:14

we find that all "in Christ" shall share in it. John himself was not

"beheaded," yet who doubts but that he shall share in the first

resurrection? The martyrs are put first, because most like Jesus in

their sufferings and death, therefore nearest Him in their life and

reign; for Christ indirectly affirms there are relative degrees and

places of honor in His kingdom, the highest being for those who drink

his cup of suffering. Next shall be those who have not bowed to the

world power, but have looked to the things unseen and eternal.

neither--"not yet."

foreheads . . . hands--Greek, "forehead

. . . hand."

reigned with Christ--over the earth.

5. But--B, Coptic, and ANDREAS read,

"and." A and Vulgate omit it.

again--A, B, Vulgate, Coptic, and

ANDREAS omit it. "Lived" is used for lived

again, as in

Re 2:8.

John saw them not only when restored to life, but when in the act of

reviving [BENGEL].

first resurrection--"the resurrection of the just." Earth is not

yet transfigured, and cannot therefore be the meet locality for the

transfigured Church; but from heaven the transfigured saints with

Christ rule the earth, there being a much freer communion of the

heavenly and earthly churches (a type of which state may be seen in the

forty days of the risen Saviour during which He appeared to His

disciples), and they know no higher joy than to lead their brethren on

earth to the same salvation and glory as they share themselves. The

millennial reign on earth does not rest on an isolated passage of the

Apocalypse, but all Old Testament prophecy goes on the same view

(compare

Isa 4:3; 11:9; 35:8).

Jesus, while opposing the carnal views of the kingdom of God prevalent

among the Jews in His day, does not contradict, but confirms, the Old

Testament view of a coming, earthly, Jewish kingdom of glory: beginning

from within, and spreading itself now spiritually, the kingdom of God

shall manifest itself outwardly at Christ's coming again. The papacy is

a false anticipation of the kingdom during the Church-historical

period. "When Christianity became a worldly power under Constantine,

the hope of the future was weakened by the joy over present success"

[BENGEL]. Becoming a harlot, the Church ceased to

be a bride going to meet her Bridegroom; thus millennial hopes

disappeared. The rights which Rome as a harlot usurped, shall be

exercised in holiness by the Bride. They are "kings" because they are

"priests"

(Re 20:6;

Re 1:6; 5:10);

their priesthood unto God and Christ

(Re 7:15)

is the ground of their kingship in relation to man. Men will be willing

subjects of the transfigured priest-kings, in the day of the Lord's

power. Their power is that of attraction, winning the heart, and not

counteracted by devil or beast. Church and State shall then be

co-extensive. Man created "to have dominion over earth" is to rejoice

over his world with unmixed, holy joy. John tells us that,

instead of the devil, the transfigured Church of Christ; Daniel, that

instead of the heathen beast, the holy Israel, shall rule the world

[AUBERLEN].

6. Blessed--(Compare

Re 14:13; 19:9).

on such the second death hath no power--even as it has none on

Christ now that He is risen.

priests of God--Apostate Christendom being destroyed, and the

believing Church translated at Christ's coming, there will remain

Israel and the heathen world, constituting the majority of men then

alive, which, from not having come into close contact with the Gospel,

have not incurred the guilt of rejecting it. These will be the subjects

of a general conversion

(Re 11:15).

"The veil" shall be taken off Israel first, then from off "all people."

The glorious events attending Christ's appearing, the destruction of

Antichrist, the transfiguration of the Church, and the binding of

Satan, will prepare the nations for embracing the Gospel. As

individual regeneration goes on now, so there shall be a

"regeneration" of nations then. Israel, as a nation, shall be

"born at once--in one day." As the Church began at Christ's

ascension, so the kingdom shall begin at His second advent. This

is the humiliation of the modern civilized nations, that nations which

they despise most, Jews and uncivilized barbarians, the negro

descendants of Ham who from the curse of Noah have been so backward,

Cush and Sheba, shall supplant and surpass them as centers of the

world's history (compare

De 32:21;

Ro 10:19; 11:20,

&c.). The Jews are our teachers even in New Testament times. Since

their rejection revelation has been silent. The whole Bible, even the

New Testament, is written by Jews. If revelation is to recommence in

the millennial kingdom, converted Israel must stand at the head of

humanity. In a religious point of view, Jews and Gentiles stand on an

equal footing as both alike needing mercy; but as regards God's

instrumentalities for bringing about His kingdom on earth, Israel is

His chosen people for executing His plans. The Israelite priest-kings

on earth are what the transfigured priest-kings are in heaven. There

shall be a blessed chain of giving and receiving--God, Christ, the

transfigured Bride the Church, Israel, the world of nations. A new time

of revelation will begin by the outpouring of the fulness of the

Spirit. Ezekiel (the fortieth through forty-eighth chapters), himself

son of a priest, sets forth the priestly character of Israel; Daniel

the statesman, its kingly character; Jeremiah

(Jer 33:17-21),

both its priestly and kingly character. In the Old Testament the whole

Jewish national life was religious only in an external legal manner.

The New Testament Church insists on inward renewal, but leaves its

outward manifestations free. But in the millennial kingdom, all spheres

of life shall be truly Christianized from within outwardly. The Mosaic

ceremonial law corresponds to Israel's priestly office; the civil law

to its kingly office: the Gentile Church adopts the moral law, and

exercises the prophetic office by the word working inwardly. But when

the royal and the priestly office shall be revived, then--the

principles of the Epistle to the Hebrews remaining the same--also the

ceremonial and civil law of Moses will develop its spiritual depths in

the divine worship (compare

Mt 5:17-19).

At present is the time of preaching; but then the time of the

Liturgy of converted souls forming "the great congregation"

shall come. Then shall our present defective governments give place to

perfect governments in both Church and State. Whereas under the Old

Testament the Jews exclusively, and in the New Testament the Gentiles

exclusively, enjoy the revelation of salvation (in both cases humanity

being divided and separated), in the millennium both Jews and Gentiles

are united, and the whole organism of mankind under the first-born

brother, Israel, walks in the light of God, and the full life of

humanity is at last realized. Scripture does not view the human race as

an aggregate of individuals and nationalities, but as an organic whole,

laid down once for all in the first pages of revelation.

(Ge 9:25-27; 10:1, 5, 18, 25, 32;

De 32:8

recognizes the fact that from the first the division of the nations was

made with a relation to Israel). Hence arises the importance of the Old

Testament to the Church now as ever. Three grand groups of nations,

Hamites, Japhetites, and Shemites, correspond respectively to the three

fundamental elements in man--body, soul, and spirit. The flower of

Shem, the representative of spiritual life, is Israel, even as

the flower of Israel is He in whom all mankind is summed up, the second

Adam

(Ge 12:1-3).

Thus Israel is the mediator of divine revelations for all times. Even

nature and the animal world will share in the millennial blessedness.

As sin loses its power, decay and death will decrease [AUBERLEN]. Earthly and heavenly glories shall be united

in the twofold election. Elect Israel in the flesh shall stand at the

head of the earthly, the elect spiritual Church, the Bride, in the

heavenly. These twofold elections are not merely for the good of the

elect themselves, but for the good of those to whom they minister. The

heavenly Church is elected not merely to salvation, but to rule in

love, and minister blessings over the whole earth, as king-priests. The

glory of the transfigured saints shall be felt by men in the flesh with

the same consciousness of blessing as on the Mount of Transfiguration

the three disciples experienced in witnessing the glory of Jesus, and

of Moses and Elias, when Peter exclaimed, "It is good for us to be

here"; in

2Pe 1:16-18,

the Transfiguration is regarded as the earnest of Christ's coming in

glory. The privilege of "our high calling in Christ" is limited

to the present time of Satan's reign; when he is bound, there will be

no scope for suffering for, and so afterwards reigning with, Him

(Re 3:21;

compare Note, see on

1Co 6:2).

Moreover, none can be saved in the present age and in the pale of the

Christian Church who does not also reign with Christ hereafter, the

necessary preliminary to which is suffering with Christ now. If we fail

to lay hold of the crown, we lose all, "the gift of grace as

well as the reward of service" [DE BURGH].

7. expired--Greek, "finished."

8. Gog and Magog--

(Eze 38:1-39:29;

see on

Eze 38:2).

Magog is a general name for northern nations of Japheth's posterity,

whose ideal head is Gog

(Ge 10:2).

A has but one Greek article to "Gog and Magog," whereby the two,

namely, the prince and the people, are marked as having the closest

connection. B reads the second article before Magog wrongly. HILLER [Onomasticon] explains both words as

signifying "lofty," "elevated." For "quarters" the Greek is

"corners."

to battle--Greek, "to the war," in A and B. But

ANDREAS omits "the."

9. on the breadth of the earth--so as completely to overspread

it. Perhaps we ought to translate, ". . . of the [holy]

land."

the camp of the saints and the beloved city--the camp of the

saints encircling the beloved city, Jerusalem

(Ecclesiasticus 24:11).

Contrast "hateful" in Babylon

(Re 18:2;

De 32:15,

Septuagint). Ezekiel's prophecy of Gog and Magog

(Eze 38:1-39:29)

refers to the attack made by Antichrist on Israel before the

millennium: but this attack is made after the millennium, so

that "Gog and Magog" are mystical names representing the final

adversaries led by Satan in person. Ezekiel's Gog and Magog come from

the north, but those here come "from the four corners of the

earth." Gog is by some connected with a Hebrew root,

"covered."

from God--so B, Vulgate, Syriac, Coptic, and

ANDREAS. But A omits the words. Even during the

millennium there is a separation between heaven and earth, transfigured

humanity and humanity in the flesh. Hence it is possible that an

apostasy should take place at its close. In the judgment on this

apostasy the world of nature is destroyed and renewed, as the world of

history was before the millennial kingdom; it is only then that the new

heaven and new earth are realized in final perfection. The

millennial new heaven and earth are but a foretaste of this

everlasting state when the upper and lower congregations shall be no

longer separate, though connected as in the millennium, and when new

Jerusalem shall descend from God out of heaven. The inherited

sinfulness of our nature shall be the only influence during the

millennium to prevent the power of the transfigured Church saving all

souls. When this time of grace shall end, no other shall succeed. For

what can move him in whom the visible glory of the Church, while the

influence of evil is restrained, evokes no longing for communion with

the Church's King? As the history of the world of nations ended with

the manifestation of the Church in visible glory, so that of mankind in

general shall end with the great separation of the just from the wicked

(Re 20:12)

[AUBERLEN].

10. that deceived--Greek, "that deceiveth."

lake of fire--his final doom: as "the bottomless pit"

(Re 20:1)

was his temporary prison.

where--so Coptic. But A, B, Vulgate, and

Syriac read, "where also."

the beast and the false prophet are--

(Re 19:20).

day and night--figurative for without intermission

(Re 22:5),

such as now is caused by night interposing between day and day. The

same phrase is used of the external state of the blessed

(Re 4:8).

As the bliss of these is eternal, so the woe of Satan and the lost must

be. As the beast and the false prophet led the former conspiracy

against Christ and His people, so Satan in person heads the last

conspiracy. Satan shall not be permitted to enter this Paradise

regained, to show the perfect security of believers, unlike the first

Adam whom Satan succeeded in robbing of Paradise; and shall, like

Pharaoh at the Rod Sea, receive in this last attempt his final doom.

for ever and ever--Greek, "to the ages of the ages."

11. great--in contrast to the "thrones,"

Re 20:4.

white--the emblem of purity and justice.

him that sat on it--the Father [ALFORD].

Rather, the Son, to whom "the Father hath committed all judgment." God

in Christ, that is, the Father represented by the Son, is He before

whose judgment-seat we must all stand. The Son's mediatorial reign is

with a view to prepare the kingdom for the Father's acceptance. When He

has done that, He shall give it up to the Father, "that God may be all

in all," coming into direct communion with His creatures, without

intervention of a Mediator, for the first time since the fall.

Heretofore Christ's Prophetical mediation had been prominent in

His earthly ministry, His Priestly mediation is prominent now in heaven

between His first and second advents, and His Kingly shall be so during

the millennium and at the general judgment.

earth and heaven fled away--The final conflagration, therefore,

precedes the general judgment. This is followed by the new heaven and

earth

(Re 21:1-27).

12. the dead--"the rest of the dead" who did not share the first

resurrection, and those who died during the millennium.

small and great--B has "the small and the great."

A, Vulgate, Syriac, and ANDREAS have "the

great and the small." The wicked who had died from the time of Adam to

Christ's second advent, and all the righteous and wicked who had died

during and after the millennium, shall then have their eternal portion

assigned to them. The godly who were transfigured and reigned with

Christ during it, shall also be present, not indeed to have their

portion assigned as if for the first time (for that shall have been

fixed long before,

Joh 5:24),

but to have it confirmed for ever, and that God's righteousness

may be vindicated in the case of both the saved and the lost, in the

presence of an assembled universe. Compare "We must ALL appear," &c.

Ro 14:10;

2Co 5:10.

The saints having been first pronounced just themselves by Christ out

of "the book of life," shall sit as assessors of the Judge. Compare

Mt 25:31, 32, 40,

"these My brethren." God's omniscience will not allow the most

insignificant to escape unobserved, and His omnipotence will cause the

mightiest to obey the summons. The living are not specially

mentioned: as these all shall probably first (before the destruction of

the ungodly,

Re 20:9)

be transfigured, and caught up with the saints long previously

transfigured; and though present for the confirmation of their

justification by the Judge, shall not then first have their eternal

state assigned to them, but shall sit as assessors with the Judge.

the books . . . opened--

(Da 7:10).

The books of God's remembrance, alike of the evil and the good

(Ps 56:8; 139:4;

Mal 3:16):

conscience

(Ro 2:15, 16),

the word of Christ

(Joh 12:48),

the law

(Ga 3:10),

God's eternal counsel

(Ps 139:16).

book of life--

(Re 3:5;

13:8; 21:27;

Ex 32:32, 33;

Ps 69:28;

Da 12:1;

Php 4:3).

Besides the general book recording the works of all, there is a special

book for believers in which their names are written, not for their

works, but for the work of Christ for, and in, them.

Therefore it is called, "the Lamb's book of life." Electing

grace has singled them out from the general mass.

according to their works--We are justified by faith, but

judged according to (not by) our works. For the general

judgment is primarily designed for the final vindication of God's

righteousness before the whole world, which in this checkered

dispensation of good and evil, though really ruling the world, has been

for the time less manifest. Faith is appreciable by God and the

believer alone

(Re 2:17).

But works are appreciable by all. These, then, are made the

evidential test to decide men's eternal state, thus showing that God's

administration of judgment is altogether righteous.

13. death and hell--Greek, "Hades." The essential

identity of the dying and risen body is hereby shown; for the

sea and grave give up their dead. The body that

sinned or served God shall, in righteous retribution, be the body also

that shall suffer or be rewarded. The "sea" may have a symbolical

[CLUVER from AUGUSTINE],

besides the literal meaning, as, in

Re 8:8; 12:12; 13:1; 18:17, 19;

so "death" and "hell" are personifications (compare

Re 21:1).

But the literal sense need hardly be departed from: all the different

regions wherein the bodies and souls of men had been, gave them up.

14. Death and Hades, as personified representatives of the

enemies of Christ' and His Church, are said to be cast into the lake of

fire to express the truth that Christ and His people shall never more

die, or be in the state of disembodied spirits.

This is the second death--"the lake of fire" is added in A, B,

and ANDREAS. English Version, which omits

the clause, rests on inferior manuscripts. In hell the ancient form of

death, which was one of the enemies destroyed by Christ, shall not

continue, but a death of a far different kind reigns there,

"everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord": an

abiding testimony of the victory of Christ.

15. The blissful lot of the righteous is not here specially

mentioned as their bliss had commenced before the final

judgment. Compare, however,

Mt 25:34, 41, 46.