Welcome. Nice to have you. From Maine, huh? Well, it's a little bit warmer down here, huh? Yeah, a lot warmer. My sister-in-law is still visiting from New Hampshire. And she was supposed to go back last week, but it was like minus 18 degrees in Lebanon, New Hampshire. So she said to stay out a week. Speaking of which, yes. Okay, what was your name again? Nice to have your Robert. Any relation to Charles, AA? Okay. Okay. Yes. Tom? Okay. Nice to have you, Tom. Good. Anybody else? I think the rest of us are pretty familiar. Once again, my sister-in-law, Julie, is here with us from Lebanon, New Hampshire, where it was minus 18 degrees last week. Okay, I'm going to read again chapter 20 of Revelation. We started on chapter 20 last week, and more or less what we did was we introduced the major views of the Millennium without really going into any of the details of the text of Revelation 20. I just really wanted to have everybody get in mind these basic approaches to the Millennium interpretations of the Millennium, so that when we mention them and we talk about them as we go through, you can see where the text may or may not coincide with one or another of these views. Are we on, back there for? We are. Thank you. That guy is on the ball. Okay. Well, we are going to read then Revelation chapter 20 verses 1 through 10, and then we'll open in prayer. Let's hear God's word. Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven holding in his hand the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain, and he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the devil in Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit and shut it and sealed it over him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be loose for a little while. Throne and seated on them were those to whom judgment was committed. Also, I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony to Jesus and for the word of God and who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until a thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who shares in the first resurrection. Over such, the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and they shall reign with him a thousand years. And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be loosed from his prison, and will come out to deceive the nations, which are at the four corners of the earth, that is, God and may God, to gather them for battle. Their number is like the sand of the sea, and they marched up over the broad earth and surrounded the camp of the saints in the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them. And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. Let's pray. God of all glory, we confess again that your word and your ways are often too high for us. We are mortals, and we are finite, and we are so fallible. We confess this to you, and confess our, both our inability and our unwillingness, often to follow you. We pray for your forgiveness that is given to us in Christ daily, and we claim that blood as that which presents us, faultless before you. We ask you, O Lord, to be with us again today. O Lord, you know the many needs that we come here with, for some of us it may be even hard to concentrate, because other things are clouding our minds. O Lord, we ask for you to be our God and the minister to all our needs. We ask you now to be with us, to teach us once again, to grant us fellowship with each other and with the Son, the Father, and the Holy Spirit, in the name of Jesus we pray. Amen. Okay. Revelation 20. Just to reiterate once more, last week we opened our discussion of chapter 20 with an introduction to the major views of the millennium now. We are ready to dig in to chapter 20 in the three major sections of the passage we read. The first three verses having to do with the binding of Satan, that ancient serpent who is the devil in Satan, the next few verses dealing with the rain, the thousand-year rain of Christ and his saints. And the last few verses seven through ten, dealing with what happens actually technically after the millennium when Satan is released and leads the forces of evil in a battle, the great battle against Christ and his saints and his overcome and thrown into the lake of fire. The first thing that we notice, or should notice about chapter 20, is that it comes right after chapter 19. And as Sophomoreic as that might sound, it's actually somewhat important because of this sequence of chapter 19 and chapter 20 in itself has some importance, doesn't it? If what happens in chapter 20 happens chronologically, historically, after what happens in chapter 19, then you are probably going to be predisposed to favor a pre-millennial approach to this chapter. Why is that? Because chapter 19, at least as we interpreted it, has to do with what?
Something yet to come, the judgment, particularly Christ coming back in judgment, right? So if chapter 19 presents a picture of Christ coming back in judgment, chapter 20 follows that, naturally, Christ has come, he's come before the millennium. Okay, so that would predispose you to be pre-millennial. There may be some way if you're post-millennials of working this out a little bit differently, but generally it looks like a pre-millennial series of events. However, what have we seen as we have traversed Revelation in terms of chronology and how things are presented in Revelation?
Read that out very good, June. Thanks. Recapitulation. We've seen principle at work in the book of Revelation. Our principle that's been called recapitulation. And what again is that? It's simply that we find that in Revelation, we keep going back in time, we reach a climax, namely the coming of Christ and the judgment. And then the text takes us back again to a time earlier, usually to a time right around the first coming of Christ, and presents things to us in a little bit different way, showing us a different angel on things. For instance, you might remember at the end of chapter 11, we have what appears to be a depiction of the last judgment. The nation's rage, but thy wrath came in the time for the dead to be judged. That takes us to the last judgment. But that's chapter 11. And chapter 12 opens with a scene of the heavenly woman, clothed with the sun, and she is about to give birth to a male child who is to rule the nations. That is a very obvious picture of the first coming of Christ. So what we may be having here in chapter 20 is the same thing. Chapter 19 brings us up to the end once again, and then chapter 20 starts us over with the beginning of the Christian age, the church age. Now all we've done really so far is to establish the possibility that this is recapitulatory. That is, I think from the rest of the book you'd have to say, well, this idea of recapitulation, this idea that chapter 20 starts over, is at least something you have to take seriously. You can't just approach 20 and say, look, it comes right after 19. Therefore, we have pre-millennialism. Does that make sense? But we haven't, on the other hand, proved that this is actually the case with chapter 20. So it might be, might not be. But I think you have to take the possibility seriously. There are several indications from these two chapters that make me think that indeed we have an instance of recapitulation here. Excuse me, there are several of these. I'll go through maybe three of them. And if you want to talk about those, discuss those, we can do that. One thing is that in chapter 19, there are a couple of indications that make it look like everybody who opposes Christ is done away with, vanquished, and dead by the end of chapter 19. In verse 18, we have reference to the great supper of God. The birds of mid-Haven are called to come to the great supper of God, you remember? And what are they going to feed on at this supper? Well, the birds are going to feed on the carcasses of those who oppose the Lord Christ. To eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses, and their riders, and the flesh of all men, both free and slave, both small and great. And verse 21, the rest were slain by the sword of him who sits on the horse, the rest of those who follow the beast and the false prophet. In other words, the picture seems to be of a total destruction of all opposition to Christ. Well, if that's the case, you find yourself wondering in chapter 20, if all opposition has been vanquished and destroyed, who are the nations that Satan might deceive? And he said to be bound so that he will no longer deceive the nations, but it doesn't look like there are any nations left. And even at the end of the millennium, he said when he's released, he said to have actually gone out and deceive them and brought them for battle against the saints. So that's one thing that makes me think that what we have in chapter 20 is starting over again. You might be able to hypothesize, perhaps, that there were just some nations around that weren't mentioned in chapter 19. But you'd have to do something like that and say, well, there was just something missed and something wasn't mentioned in the text. But the picture seems to be of a destruction so complete that there would be no enemies left for Satan to deceive at the end of chapter 19. Does that make sense? Thank you. That's one, if count on one vote, and she's been primed, that all people fought against Jesus, all that are against him. Well, that seems to be the picture, yeah. True, true. But of course, this also, as we try to emphasize, is symbolic as well. And it is hard to press the case to say just how literal this is going to be. Christ, this picture is coming back on a horse and the armies of heaven on horses as well. And the beast of false prophets themselves appear to be already in symbolic form. So it does depend a little bit on how you see the symbolism, what is depicting. It seems to be depicting that all opposition to Christ is vanquished, whether they're actually fighting with swords or if they're at home watching TV or whatever is going to be the case. But all opposition to Christ is vanquished. Now, like I said, I want to leave that little sliver of hope there because I don't think it's an airtight argument. Because it is symbolic, you could argue, well, it's just not concerned with the other nations that are around that are possibly to be deceived in chapter 20. But just going by the picture that presents in the text, it looks to be a complete vanquishing of all Christ's enemies. So take that for what it's worth. That is, it may not be an airtight argument. But it's one that's based on the presentation of the text, looks as though it's such that the end of chapter 19 doesn't leave us with much for Satan to work with in chapter 20. Yes. Well, nobody. I mean, we're ready for the last judgment. And in other words, you could go from the end of 19 to the end that is verses 11 and following of chapter 20 where we have the great white throne. All the dead are raised and brought before the throne of God and books are opened and they're judged. In other words, again, this is how I would think this would be interpreted. We've had several pictures throughout Revelation of the last day. The coming of Christ has been depicted as the heavens being wrapped up like a scroll and the stars falling from heaven and so forth. You've had various ways of depicting this. They all lead us up to the last judgment. The last judgment seen itself is depicted at the end of chapter 20. So this is just one more in chapter 19. And then I would say one more in chapter 20 of bringing us to that great day. Each way of depicting it is a little bit different because certain points being made. In chapter 19, the theme is really, how is Christ going to vanquish the beast and the false prophet? In chapter 20, it's how is Christ going to vanquish Satan himself? Remember, we've seen these enemies of God introduced in Revelation and then their destruction follows in sort of reverse order. You know, we've had death and hideies and Satan and Babylon and the beast and the false prophet and then Babylon. And then in reverse order, Babylon is destroyed in chapter 18. The beast and false prophet are destroyed in chapter 19. Satan is destroyed in chapter 20 and death and hideies themselves at the end of chapter 20 are destroyed. So all the enemies of God go down in order. So I think that's what's happening, chapter 19, chapter 20 has the defeat of Satan. Well, that's one indication for me that we're talking about, not a chronology here. Another one is that this mention at the end of chapter 20, verse 8, when Satan gathers Gog and Megog, we can maybe talk about those names later, but gathers them for battle. Actually, the text has an article in there, definite article, the battle, gathered for the battle. That may seem like a very tiny detail, but I think it is of significance. A few times early on in Revelation, we read of one of the enemies of God wanting to do battle against the saints. Usually it's the beast wanting to do battle, but here we have a mention of the battle. That naturally prompts the question, which battle, which battle is you talking about? The battle, the war. It's as if it has been mentioned before. And indeed, in chapter 19, we have the same phrase, the battle. That's in verse 19 of chapter 19. I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make the battle, the war, against him who sits upon the horse and against his army. Well, there again, the word V seems to presuppose that we know which battle he's talking about. Well, we go back a few chapters earlier, and in chapter 16, we have the same phrase. Verse 14 of chapter 16. They are demonic spirits performing signs who go abroad to the kings of the whole world to assemble or gather them for the battle on the great day of God, the Almighty. And that battle, of course, the next couple verses, tell us, is the battle of Armageddon. That's the first time the words V battle are mentioned in Revelation. They're mentioned again in chapter 19 and chapter 20. This makes a lot of people think that we're talking about the same battle. The same battle that's mentioned in chapter 16, the battle of Armageddon. It's mentioned again in chapter 19 with respect to the beast and false prophet, and chapter 20 with respect specifically to the devil. So it's one battle and notice in each place one of the enemies of God is said to gather, gathering together these forces from somewhere to lead them for the battle of the great day. My translation doesn't, but my Greek text does. Probably simply for the sake of a smooth translation. What's that? Could be. I doubt that there's any intent there to force a particular interpretation. I imagine it's just because of the sake of a smooth translation, but really they should find a way, I think, of getting the article in there. So again, it does seem like this is the same battle, the forces are being gathered together. Otherwise it was conceived of two battles, three battles, like this, three climactic battles. It looks like it's the same one. Another factor, which just makes me think this is the same basic series of events as we have in chapter 19. If you go back to chapter 15, verse 1, at the introduction of the seven last plagues, the seven bowl judgments. You remember that John says, the seven plagues which are the last for with them the wrath of God is ended, with them the wrath of God is ended. And then at the end of chapter 17, we have the seven things are pouring the bowl in the air, and it looks as though, really, this is the great judgment. We have in chapter 16, verse 17, saying it is done. It is finished, as if to say, yes, the wrath of God is finally poured out on the ultimate sense. Well, if that has happened before, or at the coming second coming of Christ, are we to imagine that another great outpouring of God's wrath has to occur a thousand years later after the coming of Christ? Well, it doesn't seem as though we should have to suppose that if the last great outpouring of his wrath takes place in conjunction with the second coming of Christ. There should be no need for one a thousand years later. That is one other reason that makes me think this is indeed another picture of the climactic events surrounding the second coming of Christ, and the events leading up to that. Okay, there are some other things we could mention, but I think I want to go on from that point, and just to say, again, that there are a number of things that convinced me that we are talking about not a sequence between chapters 19 and 20, but a recapitulation, 20 is going back to the first coming of Christ, and giving us a picture of the whole church age until the end. Okay, yeah, Richard is bringing up the matter of the binding of Satan, and that's very appropriate because that's the next thing I want to talk about anyway. The first point we talked about was the matter of the relation of 19 and 20. As we go into the text of chapter 20, the first thing we read about is what Richard mentioned, the binding of Satan. A great angel descends from heaven with a great chain in his hand, and bind Satan, throws him into the pit, and locks the door over him. Okay, now, on the omelennial interpretation, even for a number of post-millennials, we say that Satan has been bound in this era, and that is one of the, if not the most difficult aspect, I think, for non-omelennials, for primalennials, to concede, or to concede of even. How can you say that Satan is bound now? Look around you. All you have to do is open your eyes. Look at the activity of Satan in our world. How can you possibly suggest that he is bound? Well, as Richard was already letting on, I think we have to say. We have to say that he's bound. Scripture teaches us clearly that he's bound. The only question is, is the present binding on Satan, the same thing as this binding, or are we talking about another binding? Richard referred to Matthew 12, 29, where Jesus says, in the process of casting out demons, and you remember, then he is accused of being in league with the demons himself. He says that one cannot plunder the blind man's house, or the blind. Cannot plunder the strong man's house unless he bind, not the blind man, but the strong man. Unless he bind the strong man, and then he may plunder his house. The strong man there is, of course, the devil. And the implication is, of course, Jesus is saying, I have bound him, or I am in the process of binding him. I bind him, therefore I can ransack his house and take what he thought was his, namely the souls of the people Christ came to say. There is, and deniably an aspect in which we must say, Satan has been bound, or we wouldn't see any conversions. We can go on to Luke 10, 17. Pardon me? Well, I think you have to say that there has always been a sense in which Satan is on a leash, and he is on a tether. He can only go as far as God wants him to go. Maybe I should have said we would see no conversions, particularly, outside of Israel. What, that Satan must be bound for somebody to be converted? Well, I would argue that what Christ has done with regard to Satan is not entirely new. That is, he has affected something in a far greater degree than was possible before. I know that there have always, God has always worked in the hearts of people. He has always brought people from darkness to light. Well, in the sense that Satan is the prince of darkness, in the sense that he has power in the realm of darkness, in the realm of sin. Well, no, Christ has control over conversions, right? I would say that people are in the brawl of darkness. Paul says in Ephesians that we used to follow the prince of the power of the air. Well, let's see. Let's go back to, we were once...
Yeah. Well, let's, in chapter 2 of Ephesians says, and he made, you, he made alive, when you were dead through the trespasses and sins in which he once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. Among these, we all once lived in the passions of our flesh following the desires of body and mind. And so, we were by nature, children of wrath, like the rest of mankind, but God who has rich and mercy out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses made us alive together with Christ. So, I'm speaking in a general sense of Satan, the prince of the power of the air, having dominion or swation over all the sons of disobedience, in which we once used to be. I'm speaking in a general sense of the power of the air. He's not talking about before and after, is there any question about it? True, but it's, but this has, the whole matter of conversion and evangelization is particularly focused on Christ. So, with the coming of Christ, I think we have to say, we have seen a great outpouring of the spirit, a great outpouring of the power of God to bring people from darkness to light. That's not as though that didn't happen before, of course it did, but what has happened when since Christ has come? Where people converted, of course, there was a Holy Spirit work, of course he was, and yet we have Pentecost. We have the gospel going out to the nations, and we have, instead of the gospel, more or less confined to one nation, of course it was not completely. More or less confined or focused in one nation, it's focused in all nations. I'm sure Christ comes in in this case, it's still getting carried out. Why would we have all the spiritual battles still going on at Paul's feet, though, if there were not something of that continue? Yeah. So, in the gospel there's a medium that, from every point out of this, that yes, he was bound, but that binding is a continual until the point that, there is a taking of the menus that the church does in this world, and there's very much Christ's name initiating, gives the spirit so that one of the people could do that. So that, with someone who is not a Christian or a community that suffers, he's still being a redeeming and taking up the earth where it belongs to Satan, and he's either saying anything or not. The church is the right thing in this world. Yeah. What's your name again? Robert. Robert was saying, well isn't there sort of a middle ground here that Satan is bound, and yet is in a sense, while in a sense the church is still doing this work of Christ, and we don't see that Satan is completely disabled. And I would say, yeah, but that I think is what we have in Revelation 20. That is, remember it's symbolic, the chaining of Satan, the casting of Satan into a pit, and even the locking of the door over the pit. It, of course, sounds very complete, but it is a picture. And what we see that the purpose of the binding is for, is that he's not deceived the nations anymore, and particularly there's even a focus for that, that he deceived the nations no more so that they what? So that he does not gather them for the battle. At the in verse 8, we see that's exactly what he does when he's released. He deceives them with the intention of bringing them to the ultimate battle against the church. Now, and I would say that you and I, and every church in existence throughout history, is living proof that he has been bound because he's been unable to gather the forces of unbelief. For the final assault on the church. I mean, think for a moment, sorry, Robert, I'll give you eventually. We'll just think of it in these terms for a moment. When Satan, I'm going to describe this to Satan, even though it doesn't say so in the text, when Satan went after the baby Jesus, and inspired Herod to go after the children of Bethlehem, I mean, he must have had a one in, you know, three or four hundred chance or whatever of getting the Messiah. Of course, he missed. But what would he have to do today? You know, the Messiah has followers all over the world and not confined to one nation, Israel, but of every nation. And that's expanding all the time, we trust. Satan, his power has been curtailed. Now, it's not curtailed completely. And I don't think the intention of this text is to say that it's completely curtailed, but there's no sense in which he is active. But...
Well, Bob is bringing up that there are several passages in the New Testament, which definitely say, don't just presuppose, definitely talk about the activity of Satan, that he is going about like a organ lion seeking someone to devour. And this, we have to acknowledge this. And, you know, if Omnilism goes overboard there, then it can be justly accused of doing so. But I think that you read those same apostles, and you read at the same time, they certainly are aware of the wilds of Satan, as Paul says. But they're also aware that Satan's power is curtailed, and that Christ has power over him. And we are given these armaments in chapter 6 of Ephesians, wherewith we can fight against the principalities and the powers. Christ has overcome it. The point, I think, to be gotten from those... Well, I mean, there are whole lines of approach here. There are several texts where Christ's dominion over the principalities and the powers is very clearly laid out. There's one in Philippians, I think. It's three. First Peter has one. First Corinthians 15 has one. Christ has been given dominion. They've all been subjected to him. In that sense, he has affected a dominion. Now, that's something that is new. Is it completely new? No. Well, the apostles wouldn't talk about it as something that Christ has accomplished through the cross, if it wasn't something that he had affected through the cross. So, there is certainly a sense in which Christ has triumphed over the principalities and the powers, made a public display of them as Paul says in Colossians 2, triumpling over them in the cross.
There should be no doubt about that among Christians. The only question, and it's a legitimate one, is that whether this binding in Revelation 20 is the same one aspect of that accomplished dominion by Christ, or whether it must be talking about something further, something future. And I'm saying that I don't think it violates the text at all to say that this is speaking of an aspect of that accomplished binding that Jesus has affected, particularly when you look at the focus of what he has said to be bound in relation to. And it doesn't say that he does not tempt people anymore, doesn't tempt to sin. He doesn't have any hegemony, any dominion at all. But it says that he's not going to deceive the nations any longer, with particular reference even, to the gathering for the last battle. He has not been able to do that. Often people also point out to the great missionary effects in the Christian age, that he does not have the power over the nations, the Gentiles, in the way that he once did witness the worldwide spread of the gospel. I think that's part of it here, but I think even there that the focus of the text, once again, is on his inability to gather the forces of unbelief for the final assault on the church. So that may not convince everybody. You can see the binding and the casting of the pit and the locking of the door over the pit as so prohibitive that you can't imagine that that could relate to the present day situation. I think because it's a symbol and because of the focus of the text, it doesn't have to be read as Satan is completely disabled. Even in the millennium, according to pre-millennialism, people still sin. There's going to be sin, there's going to be death, there's going to be disobedience to Christ. Such that when Satan is released, he is immediately able, evidently, to gather people against Christ. So I don't think you even get away from the problem completely on a pre-millennial approach.
I mean, there are consistencies from a pre-millennial view of that with Christ and that millennial reign of Christ as us again. That's where it is, and a redemption of the land, some by what we've known, under the influence of the power of Christ as we do. You can certainly conceive of the millennium in a more literal fashion like that that would be more consistent with a more complete binding of Satan. That's true. Robert, did you have something? I just understood in the context of God's relationship with Satan, and I think the Old Testament, there's a lot of light on that issue. You see, there's enough to empty your mouth position. God doesn't, he's not restricted from his ability to govern because of Satan's ability to govern. And what you have here is a man who prays a being that is still under the authority of God. You can see it very well clearly at the beginning of that joke. And another was the day when the sons of God came to present themselves to full of the Lord, and Satan also did not know him. And Lord said the same. From where did you come, Satan answered, the Lord said, from roaming about my earth walking around it, and Lord said to Satan, and if you consider my servant Joseph, there's no one like my earth, a blameless and afraid man who came to God, that's right where it came from. And Satan asked the Lord to joke through nothing. And he says, now, not made a hedge about him at his house, and all that he has on every side. That has blessed the work of his hands and his possessions, and it's increased into the land. But put forth my hand now, and touch all that he has, and he was really cursed thee to thy face. Satan admits that God is the one who's going to touch you and curse him, and then God turns around and says, I mean, to Satan, go ahead, but spare his life, spare the man. And then again, on the next interaction, he's allowed to actually attack Joe, but not take his life. And I think we look at this whole picture. You see that Satan is just like all the other angels, submitting himself to God, and having to spend himself to God, even though he is a evil, disrespectful. He still has to do exactly what he's allowed to do. So when you see that, the spectacle already being played, what's happening here, is finding, is it more, is it a different form of God's authority being placed. I think it's also about 40 being placed upon Christ rather than whether it's just slowly back to God, and my God himself. There is the picture of Christ being lifted up rather than the Satan being. There's a change of relationship rather than complete uttering the same thing. Okay, yeah, good. Robert is bringing up that the author out scripture, Satan is never a completely independent creature that can do whatever he wants to do against God. He's always limited. And the book of Job, which Robert quoted, is an excellent case in point that Satan had to see permission. He had to make his case before God allowed him to do such and such in that instance. And that in the New Testament we see particularly the elevation of Christ as the Messiah, the Son of God, in relation to Satan in particular. And in this case, Christ is Christ's authority and superiority that is asserted in no uncertain terms. Yes, John.
I saw Satan fall as obviously something that happened in the thing that Satan said. Back to Revelation 40, I think one of the things that sometimes we, it's difficult for us to appreciate as Gentiles in this age, is how radical the change was between the testaments and how significant it was, whereas it was the nation of Israel that was clearly the focus of God's redemptive work in the Old Testament, that there was this explosion of the gospel. It was really scandalous. I mean, you see that at Pentecost. And even throughout the book of Acts, there's a working out of what is this thing that all the nations are now the focus of God's redemptive plan. Obviously, there's a fulfillment of the original promises to Abraham, but you read what it says happens in Revelation 20. You get the, it seems to me to be clear that it's a temporary and an incomplete binding of Satan, and it's done for a specific purpose. It's not as though Satan is bound and cannot do anything, but he's specifically bound to keep him from deceiving the nation. And to me that, again, back to the perspective I think of Acts, there was something significant, a radical that took place there when the Gentiles, all of a sudden, all of a sudden started receiving the Holy Spirit being ushered into the kingdom. Right, yeah, that is radical. John's bringing to our attention the radical change from Old Testament to New Testament. It's not even there, it's not a complete change because there were Gentiles saving the Old Testament, but how Pentecost looks to that, that significant change of the gospel going to the nations and Satan being unable to prevent it. And that tying in with Revelation 20, he mentioned Luke 10, 17, and 18 where Christ sees Satan fall from heaven. There's another passage in John's gospel, John 1231, that I think also pertains. Jesus says, and he's just about to go to the cross. He says, now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the ruler of this world be cast out. And he goes on to say, and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, referring to his crucifixion, will draw all men to myself. Now there is an occasion where I think that the link is made between Satan being cast out, whatever that means. It's obviously a dethroning or disempowering. Satan being cast out and Christ drawing all men to himself. It's a relation between diminishing of Satan's power and evangelization, mission, people coming all men. All kinds of people coming to Christ. So I think that a link is made there that is sort of like what we've, well, it's like what we've been talking about. One of the, one of the ampacies of Revelation 20, even though I would still say, even the focus of his binding with respect to the nations, though I think it presupposes the mission aspect, the focus is that he's not going to be able to lead the nations in the finalists. Again, it's the church. Yes. The message is now, or was it sufficient that Christ mediated this new covenant that was promised in which God says, if no longer will we say no to the Lord, but every natural number from the least to the greatest. In other words, in other words, Satan has been down to that Christ comes and initiates this excellent covenant that opens up. Right. Tell me your name again. I'm sorry. Dave, Dave's bringing up or asking the question, is it that so much that Satan has to be bound in order for us to enjoy all the blessings of being Christ, or is it simply that Christ has come to execute the better covenant that he was promised to execute? And I would say, yes, that is, I would say both. I would say that one involves the other that for Christ to put into effect the blessings of the covenant for him to be the Messiah means that there has to be this confrontation. There had to be a confrontation with Satan. In the cross, he disarmed the principalities and the powers. There are two sides of the same coin, in other words, I would say, that he's there. They're not unrelated to each other. I guess my thing is that you talked about the extreme nature of Satan trying to destroy the Messiah, by just trying to children. And that just seemed like the most powerful cultures were happening right at the time, or the Christ was in it, which was themselves as Christ was in it. That's how he disarmed, I mean, he was victorious over that strong surge. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Satan, Christ overcame Satan in that strong surge early on, but I think the effects of that are still with us. Richard. That's a war right now, and that was thrown down. And then it says, it's the world of youth, or where it goes, in Zanzo, it's going to be down. But then it says that there's a woman who's in charge, who's in charge, and from the presence of the serpent. Yeah. This image is changing constantly. You guys have a sensation of it sometimes. Yeah, that's a good point. And Richard is bringing up that you have a lot of symbolism and revelation. It's not always the same symbolism. It changes. And there are different ways of depicting both Satan's limitation and Satan's the power that he still has. He still persecutes the church. And chapter 12 is a great case in point, and I would argue it's actually a parallel text to chapter 20. Where Satan is cast out of heaven, he's defeated, he's thrown down, but woe to you, oh earth, and see, because he knows his time is short. And yet, so he pursues the woman, but the woman, the church, is protected. And she's protected away from the presence of the serpent. So he goes forth to make war on her offspring, but how does he do that? He does that in listing the beast and the false prophet, and it takes this supreme effort on his part to get to that point where the beast and the false prophet can mount their final assault against the church. So the church is assaulted, but the church is protected. You have both presented at the same time in Revelation, and that's where it's difficult for us, because we want one or the other. We want to have a completely protected or it's completely assaulted. But yeah, Robert.
Yeah.
Our own experience, each of us in this room, shows us a very working aspect of what was meant in the past, that it is supposed to be. A fine story that I believe is true, I've told my wife for a couple of minutes. She went home, and there were three guys hiding in the bathroom, and they killed a couple down the street, as far as I know this is true. And there was a historical event that occurred a few minutes later by which she could control more or less any control. But when I got the guy down the side, she lost her. And the police then more or less found this one in the middle who was alive, and he was for crack at it. They continued to harass her and fight against them, and they had intended to hide out the various individuals who killed her. And so she's telling us this story, two days later, and the rest of us there. But they didn't have to go out and get the reason to fight her. And she, at that point, had this power to fight against them. And she did, and she told us about it. More or less, we think I haven't in front yard, but I believe it stood there. But she couldn't have done that earlier, 15 minutes earlier. And Satan is still much of human, and he's still very powerful. During the historical 15 and the time, the church and the church. But we couldn't be whipping up on him the way that the church does and how the church is growing. Or if you're not found. But when we think of finding, yeah, he's so strong. He would have destroyed me. He's now found sufficiently that I can do it in this terrible way. And we can do battle against him. I'm going to answer the question. Can we see the church see that in the temple? Robert's pointing out the common experience of Christians and citing a very graphic example of an attack on a personal attack on someone. Well, we wouldn't even be able to fight back against so powerful a foe if our great friend and redeemer and high priest had not on the victory for us already. Thank you all, Tech Romans. Well, I wouldn't put it exactly that way. If we have one vote for that, is all meal, all meal, I think is a misnomer, you're right, Ed. It's a misnomer because I'll summarize Ed's point and get heath's point, Ed's saying that, well, he pointed at Romans and the parallel in another, but related realm is that there is no longer any condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And it's, again, there once and for all, a victory of Christ in its implications in many ways and then mentions the word omelennialism, which literally means no millennialism. Yes, that is an inappropriate title and he says, do you just mean that the millennium is not all it was cracked up to be, or at least by some, it means that it is not the same millennium that is believed in by some. Right. Yeah, it's a bad, it's a bad nomenclature, maybe we'll think of a better term. Heath, did you? All he was cracked up to be in the eyes of some. In the eyes of some? Yeah. That's a great point and it leads to the, I think, what is the capping answer to that. He says that the same way Christ was said to be not all, he was cracked up to be by some. That is, he did not come to fulfill the prophets in quite the way that a lot of people wanted him to do. And yet, do you say that it's therefore insufficient? No. If you've got the message of the New Testament, you say it is far greater, the fulfillment is far greater than the image ever was, the shadow ever was, the reality is so much greater. One of my professors, Seminar, used to tell the story of a, you know, it's like a young boy is promised, is promised a bicycle when he reaches a 16th birthday, a bicycle, and he's longing and dreaming for that bicycle. And when he finally reaches age 16, his father brings him out to the garage and there he sees the most beautiful, well-built, I'm trying to think of the Porsche that he's ever seen. And so then the child says, man, that a Porsche I wanted a bike. No, it's not, the reality is so much greater than the shadow was ever, ever could be. And that's what we have in Christ. So I think with that, we'll have to, we'll have to stop and we'll, I think we have still hopes of finishing Revelation 20 next week and that'll leave us two weeks for the remainder of the book. Let's close in prayer. Or Lord, we do thank You for Your precious Word and we acknowledge just how dependent we are upon You to open our eyes to Your Word, to lead us step by step. Even when we think we fall back, several steps, please, Lord, lead us forward and increase our understanding in every way. We pray in Christ's name, amen.