There has been much ink spilled over “The Millennium” mentioned in Revelation 20: Who is the angel with the key and the chain? When does this 1000-year period take place? How can there be more than one resurrection?

Well, remembering how numbers quite often have symbolic meaning throughout this book, let’s take a step back and look at the big picture – what is the essential truth this vision is trying to communicate to us? At the very least that God has absolute power over Satan – God can bind him and God is the One Who allows him to be active only for the time that God specifies. That’s good news for us, no matter how we understand the particulars of this passage. For ultimately, we do not need to fear Satan or anyone that works for him.

That’s important because of a second obvious truth: if the Church has had “millennial periods” of peace and security throughout human history, at the end of each of those times Satan has managed to deceive people and cause lots of trouble for the Church. Verse 4 says that some Christians will in fact be killed because of their faith, and that sort of opposition to the Church has indeed gone on from time to time ever since the crucifixion of Christ.

When you put these two truths together, we reach the third and most important teaching of this passage, indeed of the whole of the Revelation: whatever persecution the Church is called to endure will only be temporary. In fact, there is really no contest at all between the forces of good and evil. Yes, the dragon and the beast, Satan and the godless governments that serve him will eventually summon all the kings of earth to fight against Christ (16:14, 16; 19:19). But there will be no battle. Instead, fire will fall from heaven and destroy Satan along with all those who follow him (20:7-10).

So, no matter what opposition the world and the devil may bring our way, we have no need to live in fear. Instead, let us rejoice in the victory of Christ over sin and death and Hell, a victory that all who trust in Him share. And let us live in that victory, remaining faithful to the One Who has gained that victory at the cost of His own life.

Revelation 20:1-10 (ESV)

Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain.
2 And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years,
3 and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while.
4 Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those 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 for a thousand years.
5 The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection.
6 Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.
7 And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison
8 and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea.
9 And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them,
10 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.