For one thousand years, the earth will be governed by Jesus Christ from Jerusalem — directly, visibly, with no democratic ambiguity or disputed authority. Crime will be adjudicated immediately. Satan will be bound. Nature itself will be transformed: wolves lying down with lambs, deserts blooming, lifespans extending. This is not allegory. This is the literal fulfillment of promises God made to Abraham, to David, and to the prophets — promises that cannot be spiritualized away without making God a promise-breaker.

Last time we saw Christ return at Armageddon to establish His authority on earth. Now we enter the dispensation that follows: the Millennium — one thousand years of divine government with Christ reigning physically from the throne of David in Jerusalem.

THE AGE TO COME is that stretch of time from Christ's second advent all the way to the New Heaven and New Earth. It contains just one dispensation—the Millennium. This will be the final age before the eternal perfect state, when God will once again be all-in-all, just as He was before rebellion ever entered the universe.

In Revelation 20:1-15, we get a panoramic view of what's coming: Satan's expulsion from Earth, Christ's thousand-year reign with His saints, Satan's brief post-millennial career and ultimate doom, and the final judgment of all.

I. The Expulsion of Satan From the Earth

"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.

This passage picks up right where Revelation 19:11-21 left off—after the Battle of Armageddon—and shows us the dragon being confined to the Abyss. Once Armageddon is over, an angel will descend from Heaven carrying the key to the Abyss. This angel is explained under the fifth trumpet in Lesson Forty-one, and the Abyss itself is covered in Lesson Thirty-seven.

Now, you might wonder: how can an angel or spirit be bound by a literal chain and thrown into a material place? It only makes sense when you remember that angels have bodies and can be localized and confined to physical locations, as we saw in Lesson Six. Think of it like this: even though angels are spiritual beings, they still have form and substance—they're not just abstract ideas floating around.

If this weren't true, how could the demons currently bound in the Abyss be released under the fifth and sixth trumpets? How could angels be confined to Tartarus in chains 2 Peter 2:4? And how will all wicked men, demons, fallen angels, and rebellious creatures of every kind be confined in the Lake of Fire forever? Matthew 25:41Revelation 14:9-11Revelation 19:20Revelation 20:10-15.

This angel mentioned in Revelation 20:1-3 will lay hold of Satan, overpower him through actual combat, bind him with a great chain, and cast him into the Abyss for a thousand years. Then the angel will "set a seal upon him"—literally sealing the Abyss over Satan to keep him there so he cannot deceive the nations until the Millennium is finished.

So we see that Satan is a literal person, his doom is literal, he will be bound by a literal angel with a literal chain, cast into a literal Abyss, and sealed with a literal seal for the duration of the Millennium.

In Rev. 12, we learned that the dragon and his angels will be cast out of Heaven to Earth in the middle of the Week. They'll remain there until the Battle of Armageddon, when they'll fight against Christ and His angels and saints. Scripture doesn't explicitly state whether Satan's angels will be cast into the Abyss with him. However, Isaiah 24:21-22 and 25:7 make it clear they will be cast into the pit with Satan and will be loosed with him "after many days" to help him deceive the nations once more Revelation 20:1-10.