The 1,000-Year Reign
Revelation 20:1-7

A very popular take today on the end-times timeline is the premillennial view which teaches that Christ will come unexpectedly and take all the believers to Heaven. Then, following this rapture, a seven-year period of tribulation will take place on Earth. After this tribulation, Christ will come back and reign on Earth for 1,000 years, after which the world will be destroyed.

This was the dominant teaching when I was growing up and still is today. However, it is not accurate. The book of Revelation is very complex with confusing language, but wonderfully we are living in a day when God is granting additional understanding to Bible students around the world (see Study on The Book's Been Opened).

Part of what has made the end-times prophecies so difficult to fully understand is the fact that God did not write about them chronologically. Part of the reason the timing of this “1,000-year” reign has been so misunderstood is because Bible teachers everywhere have incorrectly assumed that the events depicted in Revelation 20 chronologically follow the events of Revelation 19.

Summary

The only place in the Bible where we read of a 1,000-year reign is in Revelation chapter 20 so we are going to examine this passage verse by verse. When we do that we discover that the “1,000-year” reign is a figurative time label that is applied to the same timeframe as the Early Rain (see Study on The Latter Rain). It began in 33 AD and ended at the beginning of the Great Tribulation when Satan was loosed.



Verse 1
“And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.”

Christ is the angel that holds the key to the bottomless pit:
“Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.” (Revelation 1:17-18)

Christ is sometimes referred to as an angel. For example, Michael the archangel is a name for Christ (see Study on Michael The Archangel).

Verse 2
“And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,”

Here we learn that Christ binds Satan for a thousand years. We will develop an understanding of this as we progress through the next few verses.



Verse 3
“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.”

According to verses 2 and 3, Satan was both bound and cast into the bottomless pit at the same time. To better understand this passage, let's take a look at Revelation 12:9:
"And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him."
There is no doubt that this is speaking of the same event as Revelation 20:2-3.

Notice that Satan was cast out into Earth, not a place called hell as many assume Revelation 20:3 is referencing. This is why comparing Scripture with Scripture is so important. It was at this time when Satan was cast out of Heaven forever. Where most people get confused is that they assume when Satan fell from Heaven he no longer had access to it. However, Satan did in fact have access to Heaven during the Old Testament era:
“Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.” (Job 1:6)
“Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the LORD.” (Job 2:1)
The “sons of God” in Job is a reference to believers, so these passages are speaking of a gathering of believers before God in Heaven, among which Satan was present.

The opening verses of Revelation chapter 12 speak of Christ coming to set up His church. As it speaks about Satan being cast out to Earth it says that he lost access to Heaven:
“And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.” (Revelation 12:8)

So Revelation chapter 12 teaches that Satan was cast out around the time of Christ’s first coming about 2,000 years ago. When the time came for Christ to face the wrath of God for the believers He declared it was time for Satan to be cast out:
“Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.” (John 12:31)
It was at the cross when Satan was cast out. Therefore, it must be true that Satan was also bound at the cross since, according to Revelation 20:2-3, both events take place at the same time. Let’s verify this.

We read that Satan and his angels are already bound in chains reserved for destruction:
“And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.” (Jude 1:6)
This ties in with our passage in Revelation 20 which speaks of Christ coming with chains to bind Satan. This verse was written some time after Christ’s crucifixion in 33 AD and before the completion of the Bible in about 95 AD. Therefore, Satan was already in chains before 95 AD.

God declares that Christ came to destroy the works of Satan:
“He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.” (1 John 3:8)
Christ accomplished this through His work on the cross:
“Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Hebrews 2:14)
It was at this point when Satan stood condemned (John 16:7-11). Satan was bound at the cross, but clearly he was still able to work in the world to a certain degree.

Some people may have difficulty with seeing how Satan can be bound, but not completely. Look at it this way: a prisoner is bound but is still free to lift weights or watch TV. You can drive but not through red lights, or at 100mph, or without your seatbelt. You are bound by laws; or rather, you are limited by them. Likewise, Satan's powers were limited when he was bound at the cross. Before the cross, relatively few people became saved, even when Jesus was preaching. However, just after the cross Peter preached to a crowd and about 3,000 were saved in one afternoon (Acts 2:41). Something had hurt Satan's ability to deceive, which ties in with the statement in Revelation 20:3 that Satan was bound so that he could deceive the nations no more.

Remember, the number 1,000 in the Bible is often used figuratively to signify "many" or "all.” For example, we read about the cattle on 1,000 hills in Psalm 50:10 and the “ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands” angels, beasts, and elders in Revelation 5:11. These numbers are to be understood figuratively, not literally. Likewise, the “1,000-year” reign spoken of in Revelation chapter 20 does not span a literal 1,000 years. We know it began at the cross. We read that after the 1,000 years are expired Satan must be loosed for a little season. When we piece everything together we discover that the little season in view is the Great Tribulation.

Verse 4
“And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.”

This verse is sometimes offered as proof that Christ will reign on Earth with believers, and this is typically taught to take place after the Great Tribulation. However, the Bible doesn't teach that Christ will come down and reign on Earth in a literal, political way. For an examination of the events of this verse please see the Study on The Beast.


Verse 5
“But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.”

As the next verse will indicate, the resurrection in view here is that which takes place at the point of salvation when a believer’s soul is quickened. This verse is speaking of the spiritually dead, not the physically dead. Also, it is only speaking of the spiritually dead who will eventually become saved. We know this because the next verse tells us that only the believers take part in the first resurrection.

Verse 6
“Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.”

The second death is the final destruction that comes on the last day:
“And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.” (Revelation 20:14)
So those that take part in the first resurrection, those that do not experience the second death, are those who are saved.

Believers are referred to here as reigning priests, but it is not speaking of the kind of reigning we associate with a political king. It’s not speaking of some future time when believers will be sitting on thrones on Earth. Rather, it is a reminder that all believers are a royal priesthood:
“But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light” (1 Peter 2:9)
It is a spiritual reign that has nothing to do with the politics of this world. Spiritually, believers are kings:
"And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen." (Revelation 1:6)

Verse 7
”And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,”

We know that Satan was not actually contained somewhere during the “1,000-year” reign. The binding of Satan at the cross was the event of being cast out to Earth and the Holy Spirit limiting Satan’s deceitful work in the world. Being loosed from his prison indicates that he is once again allowed to be deceptive to a much higher degree than during the “1,000-year” reign. When we examine the rest of the end-times prophecies (which can be done by reading other studies on this site), we know this event occurred at the beginning of the Great Tribulation. We also know that this event has already taken place and that we are currently living in the Great Tribulation.

This further proves that the bottomless pit is not a literal place called hell since Satan was loosed from it after being bound. God does not put people in a literal place called hell and then remove them later.

I realize this does not agree with what many of us have been taught, but as we examine more of these end-times passages it will become clearer that this is how we are to understand this passage. In fact, the traditional teaching no longer makes any kind of sense once we have a better overall understanding of things.

Conclusion

The figurative 1,000 years of Christ’s reign began at the cross when Satan was cast out and bound. This binding of Satan greatly limited his ability to deceive the nations and that was part of God’s plan so that the Gospel could go out to all the world. At the end of the “1,000-year” period Satan was loosed and that marked the beginning of the Great Tribulation. These events are depicted in red text on the diagram below:

To see how the "1,000-year" reign fits in with the rest of the end-times events see the End-Times Events Timeline.