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Now let us
look at Rev. 20:1-3. "And I saw an angel come down from heaven,
having the key of the bottomless 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."
Here we have the binding of the dragon for a thousand years, etc.
Note: it says he laid hold on the dragon. It is the dragon under
consideration here. This dragon is identical with the great red
dragon with seven heads and ten horns of Rev. 12. The fact that it
said "the dragon" proves it is referring to something with which we
have already been made acquainted. Otherwise, it would have said "a
dragon" and have given a description of him to identify him.
Therefore we conclude there is only one dragon considered throughout
the book of Revelation and "the dragon" of Rev. 20 is the same as
the dragon of Rev. 12 which has already been discussed and
identified at considerable length.
Rev. 20:1-3 is identical with the 12th chapter of Revelation and
reviews the same period and conditions under different symbols. The
binding of the dragon and casting him down into the pit is identical
with his being cast out of heaven or his high, exalted position in
the hearts and minds of the people of the religious world. Jesus
spoke of this same thing when He said in Luke 10 :18, "I beheld
Satan as lightning fall from heaven."
The angel which came down from heaven properly represents the whole
ministry of the early church who worked in such close contact with
Christ through the Spirit and in such unison with each other that
they properly stand together as one unified body that could be
represented by one angel. The chain in his hand is the unbreakable
chain of truth which exposes every false thing.
The works of the devil and all his false doctrines and religions can
only live in darkness because he is the ruler of the darkness of
this world. Truth is light. Light dispels darkness. When darkness is
dispelled and the evil works of darkness and the devil are exposed
they have no power to operate any more, hence, it is said this false
system of religion (the dragon) was bound.
The dragon (paganism, heathenism, idolatrous worship) was overthrown
and bound through the earnest, faithful work of the early church in
getting the soul-enlightening truth to the world. Truth in the hands
of Michael and His angels (Christ and His ministers) prevailed. The
glorious triumphs of the early church continued until about A. D.
270 when the overthrow of the dragon power in a general sense seemed
to be complete. However, about this time there began a decline in
spirituality among the children of God which opened the way for a
great apostasy and the falling away which finally led to the
establishment of the Papal system about A.D. 530.
When the devil saw his first agent of deception (the dragon) was
defeated and cast down, he just quickly changed his clothes, so to
speak, and took on a Christian garb which he wore in the Papal
system and continued right on with his work of deception and
spiritual destruction but by means of a different agent. Note, it
was the dragon (the system) and not the devil himself which was
bound, cast out, etc., for the devil continued his work right on in
the beast of Rev. 13 and he is the dominating spirit of Papalism as
well as Paganism. We should understand that, since Christ has seen
fit in the Scriptures to personally identify Himself with His system
of religion and the workings of His church in the earth (the church
in the Scriptures is called the Body of Christ which would signify a
body or group of people which was actuated and motivated and
empowered to function by the Spirit of Christ within them), then it
would only be natural and proper for the devil to be personally
identified with his system and work in the earth also. Hence, the
dragon was CALLED the devil and Satan.
The Papacy was given power to continue 42 months. -Rev. 13:5.
Counting 30 days to the month this would be 1260 days. Prophetic
time was reckoned on the basis of a day for a year which would give
us 1260 years that the Papacy was to continue.
Reckoning from the time set by most of the church fathers and
historians for the beginning of the spiritual decline (A.D. 270) and
continuing on ahead to the time of the Martin Luther Reformation
when the power of the papacy was broken (A.D. 1530) we have exactly
1260 years. We could not say that the papal system was destroyed or
eliminated at the time of the Martin Luther Reformation because it
has continued even until now on a big scale but its power as a
supreme religious power, as it had been before, was broken and the
prophetic narrative moves into another step or phase of false
religion -Protestantism- which was to continue 350 years until the
time of the Evening Light Reformation when the true Church of God as
the visible functioning body of Christ was again restored to the
earth.
The thousand year time period used in this part of the prophecy
which measured the duration of the time the dragon was to be bound
as well as the time the disembodied spirits of the martyrs were
reigning with Christ in Paradise could not be literally applied as
an exact period of a thousand years' duration. I did apply it this
way in the original article printed in the February, 1970, issue of
"Faith and Victory," but I see now that to apply it literally and
all other parts of the text as symbols, which they clearly are,
would violate the fixed laws of interpreting symbols and miss the
proper meaning. Neither can we apply the rule before used as a day
for a year, for then we would have 360,000 years which would throw
the events described here clear out of harmony with all other
related events described in the prophetic narrative. So, in order to
preserve the consistency of the use and interpretation of symbols,
we conclude that this thousand years is symbolic of a long,
indefinite period of time. This thousand year period, from the
events described at its beginning and its ending, seems to span all
the intervening time breaks connected with the different events in
the progress of the prophetic history of the Revelation from the
close of the early morning church age (about 270 A.D.) until the
Evening Light Reformation age (about 1880 A.D.) when the true Church
of God was restored as the visible, functioning body of Christ in
her pristine glory; and the subsequent loosing of the dragon in the
atheistic spirit and power of communism which is so rapidly covering
the earth today and deceiving one nation after another in rapid
succession shortly following this reformation. The dragon had been
the mortal enemy of the true Church of God as she shined forth in
all of her glory in the beginning of the Christian era. Now he comes
forth to engage her in mortal combat again when she comes forth in
this evening time to shine again in all of her glory and beauty as
in the morning time after being hid from view for more than 1600
years by the two major systems of apostasy -Papalism and
Protestantism.
If we understand that there have been three major systems of false
religion in the earth, Paganism, Papalism, and Protestantism, in
that order, and operating one at a time and the spirit of the devil
predominant in all of them changing from one to another as the power
of each was broken by the power of God and His truth and that now in
the last days they are all three operating in the world at the same
time, all of these different things will not be hard to understand
clearly.
Now for a brief reference to verse 4 of Rev. 20 "And I saw the souls
of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus. . . and they
lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years." Note, it was not
people upon this earth at all that is referred to here but the souls
of them that had been beheaded (the martyrs of Jesus) in paradise.
This was the company that "loved not their lives unto the death."
Rev. 12:11. This is the same thing referred to in Rev. 12:5 which
says, "And her child was caught up to God and to His throne."
This was that glorious company of converts who were not accounted
worthy to live on the earth because of their faith in Christ; but
were persecuted unto death. But as they were put to death down here
their souls ascended up to God. The victorious reign of the church,
God's true people, down here was cut off because they were not
permitted to live here during that time so the scene shifts from
earth to paradise where they did live on and reigned with Christ
during the long reign of Papal darkness (known as the Dark Ages)
when the Papacy reigned supreme and the 350 years of the
Protestantism era (known as the dark and cloudy day) during which
time the dragon was bound.
The thousand years (long, indefinite period of time) does not
measure the duration of their reign at all. It did not end at that
time. They are still living and reigning with Christ in Paradise and
will continue to live and reign with Him eternally in heaven. But
with the restoration of the true Church of God in her full power and
glory and the preaching of the Word of God in all of its fullness by
Holy Spirit filled ministers which, when believed and obeyed, brings
a full, free and uttermost salvation from sin, salvation work on a
general scale began again in the earth and the people of God, His
church, was again restored to that victorious, triumphant life upon
the earth; so the scene shifts back down here where the work of
salvation is being carried on and just leaves this grand company to
continue their reign with Christ in Paradise. |
