"Satan's binding" - a grammatical thought

[Guest]

A while back, I was examininig Revelation 20. I was trying to see how it could be that Satan is bound, shut up and in prison - and yet still be able to deceive the nations (as he's been doing throughout post-fall human history, pre and post cross):

1 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. 2 He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; 3 and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while. Revelation 20

I've read in the past that Satan is still able to deceive the nations who allow him to deceive them (by rejecting the gospel). Looking at the grammar of the passage, the term "should" is in the subjunctive mood. As I understand it, this mood indicates that there may be an element of uncertainty about the action which seemed to lend some support to the "allowed-deceit" idea. But then, I read the following:

"The subjunctive mood indicates probability or objective possibility. The action of the verb will possibly happen, depending on certain objective factors or circumstances. It is oftentimes used in conditional statements (i.e. 'If...then...' clauses) or in purpose clauses. However if the subjunctive mood is used in a purpose or result clause, then the action should not be thought of as a possible result, but should be viewed as a definite outcome that will happen as a result of another stated action." www.ntgreek.org/learn_nt_...UBJUNCTIVE

In Revelation 20:3, "deceive" is in the result/purpose clause of the sentence. What are the conditions for this result? Well, Satan will be "laid hold" of and "bound" and "cast into" and "shut up" in the abyss (which is also his prison - v.7). Satan's inability to decieve the nations the "definite outcome" of these conditions.

Conclusion
If all of the above is accurate, then it seems to me that we have two options. Either the conditions have not yet happened (and thus the Futurist position is the correct one) or else we must introduce conditions which are not stated. If we do the latter, where in the Scirptures do we get these unstated conditions and on what basis do we insert them into the text at hand?

Any thoughts?

[Guest]

I believe the unworded conditions are set by the idea that the 1000 years is figuative and represents the ungoing Church age.

[Guest]

I am not sure that satan is decieving the nations in the sense that he was before being bound.

Before the gospel, the whole world was decieved by him, and lost aside from a small group of people, and those that wished to cast their lot in with them (which wasn't many).

The gospel, (and those whom it has saved), is everwhere now, and the situation is actually reversed from before. There are relativly few places that the gospel has not been.

That's not to say the devil doesn't still work, and decieve on some level, of course he does. It's just that he has been made powerless by the work of the cross and by the name of Christ. He can no longer "decieve the nations" as he did before. (see Matt. 12:29; John 12:31; Col. 2:15; Heb. 2:14, etc.)

I would highly recommend, Matt Rose's post in the essay's catagory HERE for a great concise statement of this position. It's really good.

God bless bro,

[Guest]

hey Derek, God bless you too brother. I have read Matt's piece and it is indeed succint and well-written:

Before the gospel, the whole world was decieved by him, and lost

19 We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. 1 John 5:19

Not much changed in that respect, apparently!

Actually, I'd be interested to know the biblical basis for that claim, that Satan's power and influence prior to the cross was so much greater than after. I know this is based on certain passages like John 12:31; Heb. 2:14, 1 John 2 etc., but is there any reason that we could not understand these passages in a different way? For example, could we not view Satan's defeat as having been secured but not yet realised (as is the case with other things like the ressurection of believers and the removal of sin from the earth)?

[Guest]

Those who believe Satan's power was broken by Jesus' death, point out that the gospel has spread throughout the world, that not as many are being put to death for "heresy" as previously, that capital punishment hs been eliminated in the more developed countries, that people in general are more tolerant, etc.

Those who believe Satan is more active than ever, point out that homosexuality, while always practised, is now practised openly,that homosexual "marriages" occur, that abortions have dramatically increased, that child molestation has increased, that there is an increase in family violence, that euthanasia has become a practice in a number of "developed" countries and has been abused, and world-wide terrorism has become entrenched, etc.

Who is right? We need to become acquainted with as many facts as possible, and make up our own minds.

[Guest]

I guess that's true Paidion. But we should fully analyse the biblical data first. There's plenty of biblical data that Satan has been extremely busy in the post-cross era, yet, I'm not familiar with any biblical data that his activity was greater before the cross.

[Guest]

I guess that's true Paidion. But we should fully analyse the biblical data first. There's plenty of biblical data that Satan has been extremely busy in the post-cross era, yet, I'm not familiar with any biblical data that his activity was greater before the cross.

Jesus said to make disciples of all the nations. In order to accomplish that Satan must be spiritually retrained from deceiving the nations. His power must have been limited by God until there are disciples in all the nations and then he will be released for a little season before Christ's return IMO.
In the OT Satan was rarely referred to by name but i think his power was much greater then after Christ's death. For example the Cananites may have been demonized and had to be physically destroyed by the Israelites because they did'nt have the power of the Holy Spirit to fight Satan on a spiritual level so they had to destroy his servents physically.

[Guest]

Jesus said to make disciples of all the nations. In order to accomplish that Satan must be spiritually retrained from deceiving the nations. His power must have been limited by God until there are disciples in all the nations and then he will be released for a little season before Christ's return IMO.

But why in the first century, just decades after Jesus' ascension, do the apostles say so much about the activities of Satan both within and without the church? In the first century, Satan:

- was able to 'fill the hearts' of believers to lie against God (Acts 5:3)
- was able to 'tempt' believers and manipulate their lack of self-control (1 Corinthians 7:5),
- was able to 'take advantage' of believers with his 'wiles' (2 Cor. 2:10-11)
- was the god of this age who is blinding the minds of some unbelievers (2 Cor. 4:4)
- was 'transforming himself in to an angel of light' (2 Cor. 11:14-15)
- was 'the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who is now working in the sons of disobedience' (Ephesians 2:2)
- was 'warring' against saints with 'fiery darts' (Ephesians 6:10-12,16)
- was able to hinder the movements of evangelists (1 Thessalonians 2:18)
- was 'walking around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour' (1 Peter 5:8)

Post-apostolic church history is similarly grim. The gospel has always been greatly opposed throughout the nations it has been preached in. God's New Covenant people have been slaughtered throughout history. In the 4th century, Satan unleashed one of his greatest ever assaults by actually taking over the "church"! Then there was the rise of Islam which swept across so many formerly Christian communities and has hardened a great many people to the gospel. And so on, and so on.

It almost appears that Satan's activities have been fiercer than ever after the cross!

[Guest]

In my opinion, the binding of Satan "so that he should not deceive the nations" is a dramatic portrayal of a concept. The concept is not that Satan is actually in chains, in prison, is less-busy, sick or even necessarily weakened. It is making a statement about the net impact of Satan's influence upon the nations (that is, the Gentile World).

That there has been a dramatic change in this respect, since the coming of Christ, can not be denied. Before Jesus came, the nations as a whole—whether conceived as so many individuals, or as collective religio-political entities—were just about 100% in spiritual darkness. They worshipped demons, sacrificed their children in the fire, were terrified by dark, unknown powers, lived in reckless sexual perversion, killed their neighbor tribes and nations at a whim, on a grudge or simply to seize their property...this is what we gather from history and cultural anthropology.

Are there some societies still which exhibit this total absence of spiritual light? A few, perhaps, in remote jungles, and in regions not yet significantly penetrated by the gospel, like the Islamic World. Of course there are individuals in every nation (as there were also in Israel) who practice such lawlessness. Their condemnation is that "light is come into the world, and they loved darkness, rather than light, because their deeds were evil."

Those who reject light, collectively comprise the "world"—the whole of which "lies in the evil one." Satan remains "the god of this world." For those who inhabit this segment of the earth's population, it is true that Satan's power would not seem to be diminished in the least.

However, when one compares the 100% darkness of the nations prior to the spread of the Christian message with the presence today of "a great multitude, which no one could number, of ALL NATIONS, tribes, peoples and tongues" who now praise the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob through their allegiance to Jesus Christ, it is not hard to justify the imagery of Revelation 20 in describing Satan's loss of influence.

Though not all who live in the Western world are Christians, yet there is not a one of these nations that officially worships demons or burns their children in the fire (they abort babies, but only manage to do so by convincing themselves that they are not really children yet). If new degrees of sexual perversion are receiving official sanction in the West, it may be an evidence that Satan has now been released for "a little season"—because, until very recently, some degree of Christian morality has, for the last 1700 years, replaced the official endorsement of perversion and temple prostitution that dominated the same region prior to the triumph of Christian teaching here.

Every modern vice that can be pointed to as evidence that the world is getting worse actually is a vice that was far more rampant the world-over prior to the coming of Christianity. That there is an apparent increase in some of these vices in our part of the world in ultra-modern history (i.e., the past 50 years) should not be permitted to blind us to the near total eradication of these vices in every part of the world where the gospel has taken hold through the last two millennia.

Consider the impact of Mother Theresa upon Calcutta—and now internationally, with her "Sisters of Charity," and of Bruce Olson and Elizabeth Elliott on the Motilone and Auca tribes, respectively, and you will see small snapshots of a process that has been taking place worldwide through Christian missions for nearly two-thousand years.

The abolition of slavery in the West, the end of foot-binding in China, the challenge to widow-burning in India, the extinction of drunkenness, crime, prostitution, divorce and poverty in Shimabuku, Okinawa—and similar cases multiplied by the hundreds, or thousands—bear eloquent testimony that the gospel has significantly shut-down the devil's franchise over the non-Jewish world, where many now acknowledge "there is another king, one Jesus.".

Different folks apparently see the situation through very different eyes, but where I'm looking, the evidence of Christ's message curtailing the devil's erstwhile, unbridled control of the Gentiles is overwhelming.

[Guest]

Thanks for your thoughts Steve.

In my opinion, the binding of Satan "so that he should not deceive the nations" is a dramatic portrayal of a concept. The concept is not that Satan is actually in chains, in prison, is less-busy, sick or even necessarily weakened. It is making a statement about the net impact of Satan's influence upon the nations (that is, the Gentile World).

This is consistent with your general approach to the book of Revelation and other so-called (I don't mean that negatively) "apocalyptic" portions of the Scriptures, an approach which I as a premillenialist of course do not take.

But, it's all good food for thought nonetheless - has Satan's "little season" started? Hmmmmmmmmm...............

Ely