I like Vernon McGee’s response to the amillenial perspective where they believe Satan is bound in chains at present,......Vernon responded, that must be a pretty long chain, sortof how you tether a cow in a pasture,...where he can still roam over the entire Earth.
Bless his heart, Mr McGee knows the Truth now.
Apparently he didn't go "Through the Bible" enough, because he seemed to miss 2 Peter 2:4
"For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment;...
FWIW, the casting into Hell and "delivered/reserved for judgement" is not future tense but is active present tense. So Peter is writing as Satan and his minions are already bound. Go ahead and continue to mock the leader of the disciples.
Jude 6-7 "And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day;
What? The brother of Jesus Christ is saying that Satan and his minions are presently in "everlasting chains under darkness"? Oh my, we have a conspiracy between Peter and Jude to blaspheme Dispensationalists!
What is cool here is that In Matthew 8:28-33 our LORD confronts two demon possessed men who instantly recognize Jesus as the Son of God. The question they cried out is instructive "What have we to do with You, Jesus, You Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?
We read further to find they begged Him not to cast them into outer darkness yet, but let them "go away into the herd of swine." So apparently, at that time, they were not yet bound but surely knew their future and yet relied on God to be faithful to His Purpose and not condemn them before the appointed time.
Later, our LORD cast out another demon in the presence of the Pharisees and they accused Him of being Beezlebub because of His command over the underworld. In His reply to them that Satan doesn't cast out Satan, He immediately casts Satan as the strong man of his house (the world) and our LORD speaks of plundering his house (redeeming the Elect) but says in order to do so, "He first binds the strong man".
Shortly thereafter our LORD told the disciples that they will be given the power to "bind" the strongman. (Matt 16:19). Which as we read in Acts, they went about casting out and binding evil spirits, and those appointed to salvation increased daily.
Now the passage in Revelation 20:3 clearly states that the extent of Satan's binding is so that he can not "deceive the nations". It doesn't talk about preventing temptation, the Bible is explicit about the scope and intent of the Binding. It is the Futurist who refuses to acknowledge what the Bible actually has to say, and they replace God's Words with their own narrative.
Furthermore, in v8 we learn that shortly before the Parousia, Satan will be released so that he can resume deceiving the nations. Isn't that interesting, because Paul, when writing about the Last Days to the Church in Thessalonica says "let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first and the man of sin is revealed..."(2 Th 2:3). Our LORD said in Mk 13:22 regarding shortly before His return that "many false prophets and false christs will rise and show signs and wonders to deceive if possible, even the Elect."
So you fans of End-Times seeking surely recognize that there will be a serious uptick in deception shortly before our LORD's return. Now what did Revelation 20:8 say about the Deceiver being released? Oh yeah, shortly before The End. Coincidence, or Amillennial doctrine exemplified?
The things is, we, the people since the days of the apostles don't know what it is to live in a world with demons being able to perform signs and wonders. In pre-chain days, the Egyptian sorcerers were able to do signs and wonders that David Copperfield can't even do with significant camera tricks and CGI teams. The priests of Ba'al clearly believed that they could call down fire from the heavens since Baál's main trick was raining down fire from the heavens - so naturally, they accepted the Winner Take All dare from Elijah, and that is why the people knew that Jehovah was Almighty because Jehovah schooled Ba'al on his own turf.
So when God declares the last days as being characterized by great signs and wonders in the heavens, it will be because the demons will be unchained and the world will be restored to a pre-apostolic era where no one in the world believed the LORD because the world was deceived by the strongman.
You folks love to quote Romans 11:26, but read the previous verse "...until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in." That means that there will come a time when Gentiles will stop coming to Christ (interesting implications to the Free Will cabal's theories), then, according to many interpreters, there will be some measure of revival among the ethnic Jews. A question that demands to be answered is "Why do the Gentiles, shortly before our LORD's return, stop believing in Christ?". Would it have to do, in part to any of those things we have just explored? Maybe a previously bound strongman Satan is now free to stop the plundering of his house?
Plutarch was a Greek historian, sort of that period's Indiana Jones, who traveled about collecting experiences and writing about them. An interesting article he wrote was when he came upon a pair of holy men who were upset because the oracles had decayed and stopped speaking. Without going into the details, the oracles of the ancient world, stopped "working" shortly after the apostles went through the city "binding" evil spirits. Coincidence?
So when we read in Revelation that Satan is bound, we know that he is because both Peter and Jude, under the authority of our LORD say so. We have their testimony which should be sufficient, but for those of you who don't accept the Bible as truth, I offer the empirical evidence of secular historians and the remarkable lack of god/goddess worship that had up until the late first century was common around the world since Nimrod.
People stop worshiping rocks and sticks when the bound demons no longer return signs and wonders.
So go ahead and scoff, and while you are busy joking around, please tell me, what sort of material is going to chain a spirit being - since you believe in a literal chaining up, surely a spirit being must be able to be bound by some sort of Kryptonite chain. How does that work out in your faith system?
So you can understand when I think you people are silly about signs and wonders when the junk we see is absolutely nothing compared to what the pre-apostolic people saw going on. Your claims lack inspiration. What you need to be looking for is stuff that no one has seen for thousands of years. When you see that stuff - THEN lets talk End Times and I will be cheering on the discussion.
1 Peter 5:8-9 (New International Version)
8 Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.
That means that there will come a time when Gentiles will stop coming to Christ (interesting implications to the Free Will cabal's theories), then, according to many interpreters, there will be some measure of revival among the ethnic Jews
πλήρωμα
play'-ro-mah
From G4137; repletion or completion, that is, (subjectively) what fills (as contents, supplement, copiousness, multitude), or (objectively) what is filled (as container, performance, period): - which is put in to fill up, piece that filled up, fulfilling, full, fulness.
As we can see, your interpretation of the passage is completely off the mark...
It is NOT when the Gentiles lose interest in God, it IS when All of the Gentiles who are coming into the Body of Christ have arrived...(And then the Rapture)
And some measure of revival for the ethnic Jews???
Rom 11:26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
Rom 11:27 For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
Looks like it is a revival for ALL of the Jews...
If you leave off the private interpretation and just believe what it says, you'll get a far better understanding of what God is saying...
The problem with your 'Satan is bound' fantasy is that you pick one side of the issue and leave out many of the verses that allow a student of the scripture to understand what's really going on...
You decide that Satan is bound so you pick out some verses and try to use them to prove that...
Eph 6:11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
Eph 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Satan is real and alive and here right now...We are given the tools to protect ourselves from him and his minions...
Satan was bound and cast into darkness...
against the rulers of the darkness of this world
The Darkness Satan was cast into is the Earth...The Earth is Satan's domain until God sends him into 'outer' darkness...
A little bible study will clear up any false notions of what the scriptures mean...
Plutarch was a Greek historian, sort of that period's Indiana Jones, who traveled about collecting experiences and writing about them. An interesting article he wrote was when he came upon a pair of holy men who were upset because the oracles had decayed and stopped speaking. Without going into the details, the oracles of the ancient world, stopped "working" shortly after the apostles went through the city "binding" evil spirits. Coincidence?
Athanaseus, in the 4th century, wrote something similar in his short book On the Incarnation. Every country where the gospel went, the old oracles ceased.
"I saw Satan fall like lightning."
"Now will the ruler of this world be cast out!"