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.
Revelation 20:1-3
I will take a moment to digress into a subject that must be discussed: the lack of knowledge about our English grammar. This lack is due to the education system laying little import to this knowledge. This lack of knowledge causes people to accept what is written, or said, as fact, as literal. This is a problem with those who read or attempt to interpret Revelation. One problem, a big problem, is to not know what is a metaphor. A metaphor is he application of a word or phrase to an object or concept it does not literally denote, suggestion comparison to that object or concept. Therefore, a metaphor is used, or is regarded as, being to represent something else; a symbol. We must look at symbols and come to discerning as to it use as a metaphor and as a metaphor what does it represent.
John see this messenger, and angel come down out of heaven: does John see heaven? Can heaven be seen? Not with our eyes, but John is seeing a vision and this angel comes from a place where he resides to be used by God: from heaven, a place where we place God. God does not have a "place" in heaven. God is everywhere at all times and has no dimensions, therefore, heaven represents where God resides, not literally, but where He is at all times: heaven. Yes, when we get to heaven, this will be a place, for man is not changed into a spirit being, but will live as a man, created by God, flesh and blood, and will be as this angel who came from heaven where he does the will of God, we too will be in a different proximity to God: we will be in His presence as we today are not completely in His presence, but are spiritually until we are raised with Jesus Christ.
The bottomless pit: My mom used to accuse me of being a bottomless pit. Why? Well I would come home from school, grab a loaf of bread, jelly, peanut butter, milk and make me a sandwich or two before dinner which was only a couple hours, at best, before we ate a meal. Seemed like, to my mother, that there was no bottom to my stomach. That was me, and we see and define this term "bottomless pit" in that way, a place that seems to have no end. We see the bottomless pit to be a place. Is that what is meant? Bottomless means lacking a bottom, or immeasurably deep, without bounds, unlimited. Also, without basis, cause or reason. The Greek word literal translation means abyss. Abyss means deep, immeasurable space, a vast chasm, the lowest or most hopeless depths. Pit, has meaning definitions, but the one that is an unpleasant depressing place, condition. We use the slang term: "its the pits," when we see something unpleasant. Abyss, or bottomless pit is a metaphor describing an unpleasant event. This bottomless pit has not bottom, it goes on forever, in fact we do not know if it has sides. All we know is that it is unpleasant and that whoever is in this pit, the abyss cannot get out of it as they are bound by a "great chain," not a small chain, but a "great chain." If bound and cast into this condition of not being able to move about as once was done, a time when what you used to do cannot be done, at least while in this abyss, then while in that pit there is no influence by the one in the pit. If a person decides to still do those things that are contrary to the will of God, they cannot say: "the Devil made me do it."
A "thousand years." If there was anything that brought about arguments is this term: "a thousand years." Premillenarianism, Postmillenianism, Amillenianism, all speak to this "thousand years." I am not here able to discuss these views as they are not apropos or germain to this discussion, it is "thousand, or thousand years." What is this word "thousand?" Is it a metaphor? Is it used literally? Peter gives us a way to discern this: "But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day" (2Peter 3:8). Is this to be taken that a day, a word that does not necessarily mean 24 hours, but a time period, and in this case this may not mean that: transliteral: "But this one thing let not be hidden from you, beloved, that one day with (the) Lord [is] as a thousand years, and a thousand years as day one" (2Peter 3:8). More English grammar: hyperbole: An obvious and intentional exaggeration, or an extravagant statement or figure of speech not intended to be taken literally. Peter under inspiration is not given us a rule, some metric that we measure things or times by, but to give us that there is not time with God. For those in that day they would have understood this idiom, but some have decided that this is literal. Think about numbers in the Bible: When it was said that the angel of God killed 85,000 soldiers did someone go out and count the dead bodies? Maybe it was 84,999, or 85,010, or another amount. There is no mention that this number was to be taken as literal. But we do have this, it was a large number of soldiers, killed and this by the hand of an angel from heaven, from God. God protects His people no matter how large is the enemy.
We find that the serpent that deceived Eve was Satan. Could it be that we have made this term "serpent" to be a literal snake. But we do not even use this term this way, we use it as a metaphor, "this man is a snake in the grass." We know that this man is not a literal snake. Eve spoke to this "snake in the grass," and now we know that this "snake" is the Devil, Satan. It is Satan that goes about deceiving people, and now he is cast into the abyss and cannot go about deceiving people as before. People have time to repent and turn to God, but just as Adam and Even had to make a choice to follow God and not eat of the forbidden fruit, man once again having no Satan in their presence but is not allowed to roam once again must make a choice, Satan will once again go about deceiving. But not for long! God patience is not His permission and He has a time when He will act and when He does it is permanent.
Men ad women are being deceived now by those false teachers and preachers, those doctrines, and practices that are contrary to the Word of God, to His Scriptures. We must be on guard for we do not see the Satan cast into the abyss, but we can see the affects, and we can make a choice. Why wait? Maybe you will and maybe you won't! Now is the time to repent and simply follow Jesus. Not a Jesus that is not the Jesus of the Bible but the Jesus as revealed to us in Scripture, unadulterated Scripture. Study, pray, listen, discern by Scripture. Choose well: eternity is eternity, either with God, or without God.
Let hem be confounded and put to shame
that seek after my soul: let them be
turned back and brought to confusion
that devise my hurt.
Psalm 35:4
Do not be fooled by clever words
Richard L. Crumb
No comments:
Post a Comment