The Millennium

Revelation 20:4

"And they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years."

         That there is to be a period of time, 1000 years, when satan will be bound and Jesus will reign on the earth, is plain in the New Testament.  It is a time mentioned 6 times in Revelation 20:1-7, and is called the Millennium.

                It's the time that Jesus taught His disciples to pray for in the prayer - "Thy Kingdom Come."

The wicked will descend into the Lake of Fire where they will exist in a conscious state and in torment for all eternity.

        But the Second Death has no terror for the Righteous, the promise is that it shall have no power over them.

After the wicked have been raised to be judged at the Great White Throne Judgment and because their names are not found written in the Book of Life, they are sentenced to die again, that is, their souls and spirits are separated from their bodies and then they go to the Lake of Fire without material bodies.

         Because a 'soul' and a 'spirit' are fireproof, they can remain in the flames of a literal fire for all eternity without being consumed. 

                This is the doom of the wicked!

There is another group of people mentioned called the Rest of the Dead, who are not to live again [that is, raised from the dead] until the 1000 years are finished.

        Who these dead are, are referred to as the Wicked Dead.

                It's clear that there are Two Resurrections of the dead. The first of the Righteous and the second of the Wicked; these two Resurrections are 1000 years apart.

John saw the Tribulation Saints in their disembodied or soulish state between death and the resurrection of their bodies.

         This shows that both the groups of believers were resurrected and lived and were to reign with Jesus for a 1000 years. 

                The Tribulation Saints will live and reign with Him during the 1000 years also.

And the others described by the words, "And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God and which had not worshipped the Beast neither his Image, neither had received the Mark upon their foreheads or in their hands"

         This group is made up of those who were slain for refusing to worship the Beast or his Image and represent the Tribulation Saints; or those who perish as martyrs after the Church has been caught out.

The Believers we see sitting on Thrones are the Four and Twenty Elders of chapter 4:4-5.

         They stand for the Church and were resurrected or caught up out before The Tribulation and are the harvest that Christ and those who rose at the time of His Resurrection were the First Fruits.

The First Resurrection is in 1 Thessalonians 4:16, that the dead in Christ shall rise first. 

          But as no wicked are mentioned it is simply a statement that the living Christians shall not be caught away before the Dead in Christ is raised.

                   This speaks of two set of Believers who are to be raised at the First Resurrection. 

The First Resurrection.
Revelation 20:4-6.

" And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; [these are the Tribulation Saints] and they [ the Throne Sitters' and Tribulation Saints']lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
But the rest of the dead [the wicked dead] lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This [the Throne Sitters' and Tribulation Saints'] is the First Resurrection.
Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the First Resurrection: on such the Second Death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a Thousand Years."

Satan is not casted into the 'Lake of Fire' at this time along with the Beast and the False Prophet because he will be loosed for a short time after 1000 years.

The binding of satan shows that God can stop his evil work when He is ready and without sending the armies of Heaven to do it.

          At that time, God will empower a single angel to seize, handcuff and imprison him.

The character of the chain isn't the most interesting, it's the fact that satan can and will be bound and confined in a place where he can't get out for 1000 years.

         While nothing is said about his angels and demons or other evil powers of the air; they too will be powerless during that period.

Objections have been raised about the possibility of a spirit being bound with an iron chain.

        In 2 Peter 2:24 and Jude 6, 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].

The Angel, who has the 'Key' of the Bottomless Pit, is the same angel that Paul saw when the "Fifth Trumpet" sounded in Revelation 9:1-2, who seems to be the keeper of the key of the bottomless pit.

While satan is the...
'Prince of the powers of the air', Ephesians 2:2; 
and the 'God of this age', 2 Corinthians 4:4;
and the 'Ruler of the powers of darkness, Ephesians 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, he is not omnipotent because One Angel, not called a strong angel, is able to take and bind him.

The Interval Between 
The Fourth and Fifth Dooms.
Satan Bound for a Thousand Years.
Revelation 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 thousand 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 thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season."

        Satan is called four different names 'Dragon', 'Serpent', 'Devil' and 'Satan'. From these and the fact that he can be bound shows that he is a person because an influence or a principle of evil cannot be bound.

The destruction of the great army will be supernatural and as there is to be great hail to fall from heaven on the enemies of God when the Seventh Vial is poured out, which is included at this time, may be the means God will use, because it was the way that the enemies of Israel were destroyed on the same battlefield in the Battle of BethHoron in the days of Joshua, Joshua 10:1-11

The words in Revelation 19:21, "and all the fowls were filled with their flesh," will fulfill the words of Jesus: "For wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles [birds of prey] be gathered together." Matthew 24:27-28.

The Feast in Revelation 19:17-18 is described in the Old Testament, in Ezekiel 39:1-22.

         Also in Ezekiel this same chapter, it tells of the House of Israel, the occupants of Palestine in that day, shall be seven months burying the bones of the dead, the flesh having been eaten by the birds and beasts of prey and the wood from the weapons , army wagons, spears, etc, shall last the inhabitants of the land for fuel seven years, so that they will not have to take wood out of the field, nor cut down any out of the forests.

"And I [John] saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, [buzzards, vultures, eagles], Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God;

        That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them [ordinary soldiers], and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great."