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| PentecostalTheology.com
To understand the parable of Revelation 20 regarding the millennium a person needs to understand that Satan is bound (prevented from deceiving them) by God when an individual Christian is obedient and loosed to decieve them when they are disobedient.
To understand this parable the reader must view the Thousand years as the “obedient Christian life”.
The Greek word Teleo (End – Strongs 5055) is used three times in this chapter. Indicating the end of something has been reached. The word is used in this chapter to indicate either the “end” of obedience or the “end” of disobedience.
It is helpful to understand that the Bible tells us that the End/Goal (Teleo 5055) of our faith is Salvation, 1 Pet 1:9. This fact has bearing on this parable and its interpretation.
1Pe 1:9 Receiving the end (Teleo 5055) of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
Rev 20 verses 2 and 3 begin with Satan being bound. This is indicative of an obedient Christian person.
We are told that He will not be loosed until the thousand years are fulfilled/end (Teleo).
Satan is loosed when a Christian’s obedience comes to an end.
Verse 4 shows tha obeying the Gospel is the equivalent to "reigning in this life", Ro 5:17.
Verse 5 begins with Satan being loose to deceive the person.
That person does not live again (participate in the resurrected Christian life, Col 3:1) until the Christian’s disobedience ends, and Satan is again bound and unable to deceive the person due to the individual’s obedience to the gospel of Christ.
In verse 5 "Teleo" is again used to indicate that the dead (In sin) do not live again and experience the resurrected life in Christ until the thousand years are finished/accomplished (Teleo).
Christians do not live the resurrected life until they are again obedient, Col 3:1
Verse 7 again indicates that when the Christian’s obedience or the millennium expires/ends (Teleo) Satan is again loosed to deceive them.
John illustrates in Rev 20:5 that the millennium is the first resurrection.
Re 20:5 But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
Paul says in Col 3:1 that those who follow Christ have been resurrected.
Both John and Paul are speaking of the same resurrection.
Col 3:1 ¶ If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
Paul said that His students had been raised from the dead in Col 3:1.
The Christian life appears to be the first resurrection that is mentioned in scripture according to Romans 6.
John calls the first resurrection the millennium in Rev 20:5.
It seems that the Christian life is the millennium, and Revelation 20 simply shows among other things, that Christians are obedient at times and disobedient at other times. The resultant situations are the result of God ensuring that we reap what we sow.
