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To: xzins
All of the scriptures you cite DO indicate a Satan whose powers have been limited when it comes to Christians. We CAN resist evil. We ARE protected by the armor of God, especially the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness and the sword of the spirit. We are saved from sin. Not just in the next life, but in this one. As we allow our hearts and minds to be remade by the Holy Spirit, Satan loses his power over us. Make no mistake about it: The Kingdom of God is already established and Satan, as prophesied in the proto evangel of Gen 3, has been dealt a mortal blow to his head. Is he dead yet? No. Does he hold sway over most of humanity? Yes. But his days are numbered and Christ ALREADY RULES. IT..IS..FINISHED. THIS IS THE GOSPEL, for Christ's sake. Take courage. As Bonhoffer notes, we are like a victorious army running in rout from the field of triumph.
75 posted on 11/15/2002 4:57:48 PM PST by Tenega
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To: Tenega
The claim that Revelation 20:1 "takes us back once again to the beginning of the New Testament era,"20 does not seem warranted from the text. There certainly are no indicators within the text that the events of Revelation 20:1 take the reader back to the beginning of the present age. Nor are there textual indicators that the events of Revelation 20 should be separated chronologically from the events of Revelation 19:11-21. In fact, the opposite is the case. The events of Revelation 20 seem to follow naturally the events described in Revelation 19:11-21. If one did not have a theological presupposition that the millennium must be fulfilled in the present age, what indicators within the text would indicate that 20:1 takes the reader back to the beginning of the church era? A normal reading indicates that Christ appears from heaven (19:11-19), He destroys his enemies including the beast and the false prophet (19:20-21) and then He deals with Satan by binding him and casting him into the abyss (20:1-3). As Ladd says, "There is absolutely no hint of any recapitulation in chapter 20."21

It's all a package. (1) The interpretive methodology is highly suspect (see quote above.) (2) Any argument that Satan running around wreaking havoc on the earth is what God intends as "kingdom on earth" is simply suspect.

It makes it absolutely reasonable for reasonable bible readers to reject the amillennial as too difficult to buy.

76 posted on 11/15/2002 5:03:46 PM PST by xzins
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