Revelation 20:3
3 And [kai] cast [ballo] him [autos] into [eis] the bottomless pit, [abussos] and [kai] shut [kleio] him [autos] up, [kleio] and [kai] set a seal [sphragizo] upon [epano] him, [autos] that [hina me] he should deceive [planao] the nations [ethnos] no [hina me] more, [eti] till [achri] the thousand [chilioi] years [etos] should be fulfilled: [teleo] and [kai] after [meta] that [tauta] he [autos] must [dei] be loosed [luo] a little [mikros] season. [chronos] KJV-Interlinear
3 and threw him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he should not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be released for a short time. NASB
The bad angel has been identified as Satan who is bound and then locked up in the Abyss. The word ‘abusso,’ is the reference for the Abyss, the deep and dark place that even the demons of Jesus day, feared to go. It is a depthless or bottomless place.
The prison is locked up and sealed, ‘sphragizo,’ such that no one can enter nor exit from it. The seal is a signet or a security seal. Not even communications are allowed in or out. This prevents Satan from continuing his influence even by proxy, in human society.
He will no longer have any say or influence over the nations. His access and input into history will be shut down completely. The source of evil and lies will be cut off.
The reference to the 1000 years is again a reference to the reign of Christ in the Millennial kingdom, wherein Satan will not be allowed to interfere in any way, with that rule.
The 1000 year imprisonment is not an arbitrary number, but a time concurrent with the Millennial rule of Christ.
The 1000 year period is not a symbolic period either, but rather is defined within the context of this chapter as an exact number.
Satan has had his way for about 6000 years thus far in human history, and he has not had any luck in bringing about a utopia nor even voluntary worship of himself. In fact, his record for history is one of disaster after disaster. And it will culminate in the near extinction of humanity by the end of the Tribulation.
Christ on the other hand will have a 1000 year exclusive rule (without Satan) and it will be characterized by perfect environment, long lifespan, prosperity, a huge population, and so forth. All of the things that Satan could not control will be easily controlled by Christ with no adverse affect on people.
The phrase ‘should be fulfilled,’ indicates that this is a predetermined time period, and again, not an arbitrary time period.
Satan, after the 1000 years, will be released, will demonstrate that his attitude will not change due to the incarceration, will be even more hateful toward Christ than ever before. But his time of freedom will be short, however.
The phrase ‘short time’ or ‘little season’ indicates a brief period that will not last very long. Exactly how long is not specified, but the word for season typically refers to one of the seasons of the year, and though this is not an exact match to an annual season, it does by comparison indicate that Satan will not have much time to accomplish his purpose at the end of his incarceration.
He won’t need much time however.
At the Second Advent, the reign of Christ will begin. The people who have believed in Him during the Tribulation and having survived all of its destruction, will be the seed population for repopulating the world when the Millennium begins.
During the 1000 years, a longer lifespan and many births of children and many generations will dominate society, resulting in a much larger population than ever before in history. As those generations develop the original generation of believers in Christ will transform into later generations of people who will not believe in Christ.
And as such, when the 1000 year incarceration of Satan ends, he will enter back into a world which will have a huge unbelieving population, of whom will be easily influenced and deceived. Consequently, Satan will not need much time in order to lead a rebellion against Christ. Thus the short season of his attempted coup.
Christ will not give him much time, but he will not need much time to bring together his rebellion.
The rebellion will be put down and then history will end.
The only thing remaining will be the resurrection of all Millennial believers,
their Judgment Seat of Christ evaluation,
followed by the resurrection of all unbelievers (typically called the second resurrection) and their presentment before the Great White Throne,
the judgment of unbelievers and their being cast into the Lake of Fire,
then the destruction of this universe and the creation of the new universe, where the new universe and heaven will be combined into one great and vast expanse, of which we will have no clue as to its design until we see it.
The resurrection of all believers is referred to as the first resurrection, although it will be accomplished in four separate events. We will go over that in the next few days.
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