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I was glad to see this article posted, although I firmly disagree with the author's conclusions. I have come, after many years of perplexed thought, to agree with the amillennial viewpoint as the most logical, scriptural, doctrinally correct and liveable view of things to come and things as they "is."

All children of God are forever on the defensive to be able to explain how a loving and all-powerful God could allow evil (rebellion) and tollerate the suffering of his creation.

The basic answer is that despite having the power to decree otherwise, He chose NOT to dictate our affection and obedience to Himself. Instead, He has created an environment in which WE must choose to follow Him, and accept the forgiveness he offers. Often, we are against stiff headwinds in doing so, because "the whole world is in the power of the evil one" (I John 5:19).

When we do come to that point by His leading, through repentance, surrender and commitment, He responds by granting us his own spirit to resist evil and grow in faith. And he leads us into the safety of His kingdom; a realm which is somehow beyond the tethered reach of the Devil, who "prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour" (I Peter 4:4).

A good analogy would be to a circus tiger chained to a stake. Since it appears tame, and may be docile much of the time, you might be able to walk up and pet it. Once. Twice. A hundred times. But sooner or later, if we keep walking into the radius of its chain, we risk become his meal. That is the risky game MOST people and MOST Christians play every day: consciously straying outside of the kingdom and tempting fate.

That is different from the daily testing we get from God, who is forever trying to teach us and build us up to resist evil and endure the kind of hardship the Devil thought could make Job curse God. For that training, God "uses" Satan. Indeed, a handy way to understand Satan's role in God's plan is to think of him as a quality control supervisor run amok. Or, as Paul aludes at one point, Satan is a kind of "enforcer" when we get out of line.

Still, since the temptation of Christ in the wilderness (the real point at which Satan's ultimate power was broken), Satan's sphere of influence has been significantly curtailed within the kingdom of God. That is the (probably) small but powerful domain on earth in which God's will is perfectly done.

The fearful warning, however, is that as the Day of the Lord draws near, this horrendously powerful, dark spiritual force called the Devil will be loosed to "decieve the nations." Combine that warning with the interesting line in Rev 17:17, which explains in a nutshell how the worldly powers and systems will be brought to calamity: "..for God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose."

You start to get the picture that God himself won't need to dirty his hands by destroying the world. It will destroy itself, having been driven mad by the Devil. God's most effective punishment is to take away the ability of people to see Him and hear Him: He literally allows their mind's eye to go dark. Doom follows with certainty.

As we watch the kingdoms of this world mindlessly gathering for some kind of mad bloodletting; as reason and charity, humility, truth and simple righteousness evaporate all over the globe, one can't help but wonder if we are watching this prophecy fulfilled before our very eyes.

Lord lead us to that cleft in your Rock, and cover us there with your hand.

Tenega, you said this: Still, since the temptation of Christ in the wilderness (the real point at which Satan's ultimate power was broken), Satan's sphere of influence has been significantly curtailed within the kingdom of God. That is the (probably) small but powerful domain on earth in which God's will is perfectly done.

The article points out this: 3) The amillennial view conflicts with the New Testament's depiction of Satan's activities in the present age The view that Satan is bound during this age contradicts multiple New Testament passages which show that Satan is presently active and involved in deception. He is "the god of this world [who] has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:4). He is our adversary who "prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:8). In the church age he was able to fill the heart of Ananias (Acts 5:3) and "thwart" the work of God's ministers (1 Thess. 2:18). He is one for whom we must protect ourselves from by putting on the whole armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-19). Satan's influence in this age is so great that John declared "the whole world lies in the power of the evil one" (1 John 5:19). These passages do not depict a being who has been bound and shut up in a pit. As Grudem has rightly commented, "the theme of Satan's continual activity on earth throughout the church age, makes it extremely difficult to think that Satan has been thrown into the bottomless pit."31

If we follow just the scripture, the points mentioned by the author in 1-4 in the basic article seem to made your view hard for me to buy into for myself.

I'm sure you can see why I believe the opposite.