THE INTERVAL BETWEEN THE "FOURTH" AND "FIFTH" DOOMS.

1. SATAN BOUND FOR A THOUSAND YEARS.

Rev. 20:1-3.

"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 1000 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 1000 YEARS should be fulfilled: and after that he shall be loosed a little season."

Here Satan is called by four different names--"Dragon," "Serpent," "Devil," and "Satan." From these and from the fact that he can be bound, we see that he is a "PERSON," because you cannot bind an "influence" or a "principle of evil." While Satan is the "Prince of the Powers of the Air" (Eph. 2:2), and the "God of this Age" (2. Cor. 4:4), and the "Ruler of the Powers of Darkness" (Eph. 6:11-12), and whose position is so exalted that even Michael the Archangel dare not insult him (Jude 9), and while he has great power and influence, yet he is not omnipotent, for ONE Angel and he is not called a strong angel, is able to seize and bind him. This Angel, who has the "Key" of the "BOTTOMLESS PIT," is the same "STAR Angel" that is seen by John when the "Fifth Trumpet" sounded (Rev. 9:1-2), who seems to be the custodian of the "Key" of the "Bottomless Pit."

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The objection has been raised to the possibility of binding a "spirit" with an IRON chain. But the word "iron" is not used, it is simply a "great chain," and we are told in other scriptures that "Spirit" beings can be chained. In 2. Pet. 2:4, and Jude 6, we read of the angels who sinned and kept not their "First Estate," and who are now "reserved in CHAINS," in darkness, unto the Judgment of the Great Day (The Great "White Throne" Judgment). What interests us most is, not the character of the chain, but the fact that Satan can and will be bound and confined in a place where he cannot get out for a 1000 years, and while nothing is said of the binding and confining of his angels and other evil agents, as demons and the "evil powers of the air," the inference is that they too will be power-less during that period.

The Binding of Satan reveals the fact that God can stop his evil work when He is ready, and that without sending the armies of Heaven to do so. When the time has come, God will empower and command a single Angel to seize, handcuff, and imprison him, just as an officer of the law with a warrant arrests and locks up a criminal. Satan is not cast at this time into the "Lake of Fire," to keep company with the "Beast" and "False Prophet," because God has further use for him at the end of the 1000 years for which period he is bound.