My Journey to Life, Step 27—The Millennium

6. What does Revelation 20:1-3 mean when it states Satan will be bound a thousand years?

During the millennium, Satan -the dragon- the third member of the demonic trio of Revelation 16:13, is bound, in the sense that he has no one to tempt and harass for one thousand years. The wicked who were alive at Jesus’ coming were destroyed by His brightness, the righteous have been transported to heaven, and the earth is in a state of chaos and desolation (Revelation 16:18, 20; Isaiah 24:19, 20). Thus, Satan and his angels are bound by a chain of circumstances to the bottomless pit, a symbol of the uninhabited planet or abyss. JTL27 8.1

After Jesus has finished His heavenly ministry in the Most Holy Place (see Step #5, The Sanctuary) He places the sins of His people upon Satan, who instigated all evil. In no way does Satan atone for the sins of the believers—Christ has already fully done that on the cross of Calvary. But Satan must bear the responsibility for all the sin he has caused the saved to commit. As the scapegoat was banished into an uninhabited land in ancient Israel, so God will banish Satan, the dragon of the apocalypse, into the desolated earth for one thousand years. There he can contemplate the results of his deceptions and look ahead to the dreadful penalty he must suffer because of all the evil for which he is responsible. JTL27 8.2