Author Steven Lake
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| Satan and the Thousand Years Monday, December 1st, 2014 2:10pm Keywords: (None) |
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| Periodically God gives me interesting little topics to contemplate, research and even write about from time to time, and some of them are strikingly interesting. That includes the thought I'm writing about today. It comes from a recent car trip to my dad's in which my mom and I were discussing a random topic which I at this point can't remember. Even so, as with many others like it, God used it to bring to mind an item of thought that I will be discussing in detail today, and that topic is Satan and the Millennial kingdom. Revelation 20:1-3 (KJV) - "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." This is the verse that my mind latched onto as I was riding in the car that day. It made me drift back to a commentary I'd heard years ago about how Satan, wanting to make a name for himself, was stripped of his name and only given the honor of being bestowed with many numerous titles. For example, Lucifer (light bearer) is a title, not a name, although we typically use it as a name to identify on individual luciferian for purposes of identification. This is because in our society we see names and titles as unique and distinct, yet complimentary. However, unlike names, titles are treated as modifiers of names, and rarely used alone to identify an individual. There are times when a title can be used to identify an individual, such as "Mayor" or "President", but typically they're kept as modifiers to names to either enhance or debase the name they're attached to. Now English lesson aside, when it comes to Lucifer's titles, the same rules are true. Since there's no name attached to them, they have nothing to modify, and therefore are themselves of lesser significance or value. It'd be like walking up to someone and, instead of saying, "Hey, John," you said, "Hey, dude," it'd be much the same thing. This is because to address the person by their name, in this case "John" honors the name and the person attached to it. To say "dude" takes away the individual significance of the person and their uniqueness among the crowd. So "John" lifts them up and makes them special, but "dude" lowers them down and places them in the general population. This is why calling Satan by any of his titles is actually a smack in the face and reduces him in significance and power. And God was the first one to do it. I think it was His ingenious idea from the beginning, designed to punish Satan in a way that went against the very sin he committed against God. Namely, trying to make a name for himself. In trying to lift himself up he was ultimately debased and humiliated, making all those "titles" completely useless and actually counter productive. The only reason we, as a society, treat Satan's titles as names is because we can't comprehend the idea of identifying an individual with a general title. That'd be like taking "Ben the Grizzly Bear" and calling him Grizzly Bear instead. Using that general title to mentally identify the individual just doesn't compute, and so we in turn change that title into a name in our minds so as to make it easier for us to identify and know the individual being spoken of when we speak of them, to them, or about them. Even so, by doing that we create some real troubling problems, and in some ways actually hurt ourselves by limiting our ability to understand the complexities of scripture. Allow me to show you through the following verses. Isaiah 14:12-14 (KJV) - "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High." Notice anything interesting about this verse? First off it's immediately clear that two primary titles are used for Satan here, namely "Lucifer" and "Son of the Morning", which fits perfectly with the name "Lucifer" as he was apparently an angel of great light, and supposedly the worship leader of Heaven. He also became lifted up in pride and, as I mentioned before, tried to make a name for himself. Instead all he lost his name and was instead given a lot of worthless, degrading titles. Ezekiel 28:12-18 (KJV) - "Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee. Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee." (emphasis mine) Notice anything interesting about this? Look at the highlighted text. Satan was originally an angel, one of the three top angels in Heaven, and some even believe he was the top angel, standing right next to God's throne day and night. Even if he was simply coequal with the other two chief angels, Michael and Gabriel, he still had a very special place and position in Heaven, was exceedingly beautiful, and it's evident that he held some special place or duty connected to the worship of God, possibly even worship leader which. if true. would be in keeping with the way God has setup His heavenly order. What do I mean by that? Well, take a look at the jobs of the other two chief angels. Gabriel proclaims and Michael works (ie, warrior, laborer, etc), therefore it would stand to reason that Satan would therefore have been given the duty of worship as that's the third and final core duty that can and is performed daily in heaven. For those who don't understand, you merely need look at the jobs of the angels that you see God giving each of them to do in Heaven and on Earth. These three jobs are work (aka, labor or the doing of whatever God bids them to do, like protecting us, tending to nature, etc), proclamation (passing messages from God to men, such as prophesy, teaching, revelation, etc), and worship. You don't see them doing much of anything else except those three things, so if Gabriel is doing proclamation, and Michael is working, then Satan had to be the third spoke in the wheel, and thus the one in charge of worship. And as befitting such a position, God gave him an extra measure of beauty and a wide range of special gifts, and a special position in Heaven above the other angels. This is likely one of the reasons so many theologians believe that Lucifer was originally the top angel, even above Michael and Gabriel. Even so, despite this special position, Satan still became prideful and thus fell. So in trying to make a name for himself (ie, gaining special title or significance above God) he lost his name and gained the titles he so coveted, and in quite a significant number too as I've noticed, but lost the significance and preeminence he so coveted. It's like I stated above, a title without an attached name is nothing, means nothing, and has no value in and of itself. It is a modifier or a descriptor, and NOT a name which by nature carries significance with it. It's also highly unnatural for such a thing to exist. It's why we, as a society, like to use modifiers or titles for certain people and things (ie, idiot, bimbo, dork, etc) which separate them from their names as a means to shame or mock them. Think about it. How many times have you called a foolish person "Dummy?" You don't call them "Dummy Fred" as that gives them some significance. But if you simply called them "Dummy" you reduce their standing and make them lower than they originally were. So in a way to call Lucifer by any of his titles is really a smack in the great dragon's face. Even the name Satan is actually a title. Interestingly enough, being that these "names" are actually not names but titles, it now brings Rev 20:1-3 into a whole new light, does it not? The original Greek word "Satanas" (aka satan), along with "Diabolos" (devil), not just applies to the fallen cherub we specifically identify as Lucifer (sometimes spoken of in the bible as "The *GREAT Satan") but ALL demons and fallen angels. Yes, the same titles we typically affix to the chief of all the demons also apply to all the other demons as well. So anytime we're being tempted or deceived, to say it's being done by "The Great Satan" himself would be wrong. If the chief fallen angel were really temping us personally, it'd probably result in us suffering a temptation so great that we would be crushed under its power, and God said we would not be tempted beyond what we can bear. 1 Corinthians 10:13 (NIV) - "No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it." So the stronger you are, the stronger the demon is that tempts you. But since you're not the strongest human on Earth, or the most important to the chief luciferian's plans, he won't even spend two seconds of his day worrying about you. He's got bigger fish to suck down into Hell. Therefore the most you'll have to deal with is one of the lesser demons, and not the big cheese himself. Plus Lucifer is NOT omnipresent nor omnipotent. No demon is. Only God. So therefore he's forced to focus his energy on overall strategy and whoever happens to be the biggest player in the world at that time. So we're small cheese to him. So the next time you say that Satan is tempting you, remember, it won't be "THE" Satan, but rather "A" satan. Big difference. So what does this have to do with Rev 20:1-3? Well, let's go back and look at what I've said so far and compare it to the first. First off, Lucifer, the chief fallen cherub and chief demon, is referred in this verse as a "Him" in the English translation. To us that's a denotation in the first person, denoting an individual rather than a group. However, in the original Greek word "Auton", which is the first person possessive, denotes both individuals and groups. Are you seeing it now? If "Satan" is a title, and all demons carry that title, and "Satan" is cast into the bottomless pit for a thousand years,and the word "Auton" can mean individual or group, what does this verse now say in the larger picture? Yes, it's saying that not only is "THE GREAT Satan", the one we often call "The Devil" or "Lucifer", is thrown into the bottomless pit along with ALL of the satans. So not just him but ALL of the fallen angels will go. If you think about it, that's an interesting little tidbit to know, isn't it? It explains why the Millennial kingdom is so perfect. If there are no demons to tempt the believers, life will be perfect. But for that to happen and for Christ to reign unopposed, ALL of the demons, down to the weakest little imp, need to be locked away, because if only THE CHIEF Lucifer is locked away, the other demons will simply step up and fill that power void and continue their work as before. Always remember, you can't stop an army just by imprisoning its chief general. You have to imprison the ENTIRE army, down to the very last man. Even one demon free can wreck an immeasurable amount of damage. Interesting, no? Really this topic has been one I've mulled over on and off for many years trying to understand how the Millennium can be sin free. Admittedly there will still be sin in the Millennium, as those who aren't in glorified bodies will still be suffering from the sin nature of their mortal bodies, and thus will continue to be tempted despite the absence of the demons to aid the process. Could God simply case Lucifer into Hell and leave the others demons out to wander freely? Sure. Could He also nullify the power of the demons during the Millennium making them completely impotent and unable to tempt those who are here during that time? Absolutely! But I think He will instead remove them all from the Earth to help in proving a point that the flesh is still sinful and will sin despite the lack of outside help in order to prove that even without the temptations of Satan mankind is still failed, flawed, completely and hopelessly, and without remedy lost and desperately in need of a Savior, which is Jesus Christ, Yeshua Ha-Mashiach, Messiah, the Savior of the world. Because without Christ and His salvation we are no better than the demons, and equally doomed to an eternity in the torments of Hell. |
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