Revelation 20:4-6 and the Question of the Millennium -- By: James A. Hughes

Journal: Westminster Theological Journal
Volume: WTJ 35:3 (Spring 1973)
Article: Revelation 20:4-6 and the Question of the Millennium
Author: James A. Hughes


Revelation 20:4-6 and the Question of the Millennium

James A. Hughes

With reference to the controversial question of the millennium, the passage of Scripture which seems to be the primary battleground is Revelation 20:4–6.1 This is understandable, for it alone uses the term “thousand years” with respect to the reign with Christ. And in this connection it should be kept in mind that these verses deal with the thousand-year reign and with it alone. They are not concerned with what happened before the thousand-year reign, nor are they concerned with what happens after the thousand-year reign. This is shown explicitly in the context. Verses 1–3 mention the binding of Satan for a thousand years as a prelude to verses 4–6, 2 and verses 7–10 mention what happens when the thousand years have ended and Satan is released from his prison. And therefore the intervening verses (4–6) speak of the thousand-year period itself.

It should be noted that during the thousand-year period Satan is bound with regard to one thing only, his deceiving the nations. This is clear from verse 3. Satan was cast into the bottomless pit and was shut up, and a seal was set upon him “that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled.” During the thousand-year period Satan is bound in

order not to deceive the nations. What this deception is is shown in verses 7 and 8: “And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.”3 So the deception of the nations is with reference to Satan’s gathering them together to battle4 (literally: the battle; this is a definite battle). What is the battle to which Satan gathers together the nations? The only reasonable answer is that it is the Battle of Armageddon mentioned in Revelation 16.5 In Revelation 16 we re...

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