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“And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit. … 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 … till the thousand years should be fulfilled” (Revelation 20:1-3).

The word for “bottomless pit” in the original Greek is “abussos,” or abyss. That same word is used in the Greek version of the Old Testament in Genesis 1:2 in connection with the creation of the earth, but there it is translated “deep.” “The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” The words “deep,” “bottomless pit,” and “abyss” here refer to the same thing–the earth in its totally dark, disorganized form before God made order of it.

Jeremiah, describes the earth during the 1,000 years, using the same terms as these in Genesis 1:2: “without form and void,” “no light,” “no man,” ‘black” (Jeremiah 4:23, 25, 28). So, the battered, dark earth with no people alive will be called the bottomless pit, or abyss, during the millennium years just as it was in the beginning before Creation was completed.

And Isaiah 24:22 speaks of Satan and his angels during the millennium years as “gathered in the pit” and “shut up in the prison.” Also, John speaking about Satan during the thousand years says, “An angel … having … a great chain in his hand … laid hold on … Satan, and bound him a thousand years, … 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” (Revelation 20:1-3).

The chains that ties Satan are symbolic because a spirit being cannot be confined with physical chains. During the Millennium, Satan is “tied down” because he has no people to deceive, hurt or destroy. The wicked are all dead and the righteous are all in heaven. And Satan is confined to this earth he can’t wander in the universe either. This will give him a chance to meditate over his great sins and see the folly of his ways before God destroys him in the fires of hell with the sinners at the end of the thousand years.

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In His service,
BibleAsk Team