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About the binding of Satan from the crucifixion of Christ to death, and about a thousand years Rev.20:1. And I saw an angel descending from heaven, who had the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. Rev.20:2. He took the dragon, the ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, Rev.20:3. and he cast him into the abyss, and shut him up, and put a seal over him, that he should deceive the nations no more, until the thousand years were ended; after this he should be released for a short time. Here we are talking about the overthrow of the devil that happened during the Lord’s suffering, when the almighty Christ, our God, bound him, who considered himself strong, delivered us from his power and condemned him to be cast into the abyss. This is also evident from the fact that the demons asked Him not to send them into the abyss. The binding of the devil is also evidenced by the cessation of idolatry, the destruction of pagan temples, the cessation of bloody sacrifices and the spread throughout the world of the knowledge of the will of God. The Great Irenaeus testifies that at the coming of Christ the devil first learned that he was condemned to the abyss and Gehenna. Therefore, I think that the above should be understood as Christ’s condemnation of the devil. The fact that an Angel serves this condemnation shows that the devil cannot resist God, for he is weaker even than an Angel. “The snake” (rope - Ed.) is the action of God that binds and takes away his strength. It is better to count “a thousand years” not as a certain number of years - a thousand, but either as a whole number of years, or as a perfect number, for the thousands about which David speaks are also counted: “a word of commandment for a thousand generations” (Ps. 104:8). This number generally means many years for the Gospel to be preached throughout the world and the seeds of piety to take root, but it can also simply mean a perfect number, because, having left the subordinate life in them, we are called “to become a perfect man, according to the stature of the fulfillment of Christ” (Eph. 4:13). Thus, a thousand years is the time from the incarnation of Christ to the coming of the Antichrist. Whether what we understand is true, or whether a thousand years are ten times a hundred years, as some think, or even less, is known only to God, Who alone knows how long His long-suffering and continuation of our lives are beneficial for us. And at the end of this time, the Antichrist will disturb the entire universe, according to the action of Belial, pouring out his poisonous anger on people, because he knows about the inevitability of his punishment. But may the all-merciful God save us from his deeds and deliver us from the punishment prepared for him and his servants, making us partakers of the eternal blessings prepared for those who accepted death for disobedience to the devil. God deserves mercy towards those who trust in Him, thanksgiving from all the powers of the angels and those living on earth, and the worship of Christ with the Father and the Life-giving Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. About the thrones for those who have kept the confession of Christ unchanged Rev.20:4. And I saw thrones and those sitting on them, to whom judgment had been given, and the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their foreheads or on their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The apostles were also given teaching thrones, from which they enlightened the nations, and in the next century they will be given to them, according to the promise, for the judgment of those who rejected the preaching of the Gospel, as David says about this: “There... the tribes went up, the tribes of the Lord, the testimony of Israel, to confess to the name of the Lord: for there the thrones sat down for judgment” (Ps. 121:4, 5). And in general, all the holy martyrs who suffered for Christ and rejected the mark of the mental beast or the image of his apostasy will be given judgment, the power to judge, with which they still judge demons, already participating in the glory of Christ until the end of this world, being revered by pious kings and princes and revealing the power granted to them by God against demonic action and bodily ailments. The devil, the Antichrist and the false prophet are common to each other both in name and in actions, for each is called a beast. Therefore, Satan or the serpent is depicted as having seven heads and ten horns with ten crowns, the Antichrist, or the beast emerging from the sea, is dressed in a similar way, and the false prophet reveals the same power, intelligence, will and activity with him to destroy those who are deceived. Those who escaped this destruction will reign in the previously indicated manner with Christ until His second coming, when they will receive even more Divine promises. About the first resurrection and second death Rev.20:5. But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection. Rev.20:6. Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection: the second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years. We know from the Holy Scriptures that there are two lives and two deaths: the first life due to the transgression of the commandment is carnal and temporary, and the second for fulfilling the commandments of God is eternal, promised to the saints. Accordingly, there are two types of death: one is physical and temporary, and the other is eternal, sent in the future as punishment for sins, that is, fiery Gehenna. There is also a difference between the dead: some, according to the word of Isaiah, “have no life” (Is. 26:14), bringing stench and death with their deeds - these must be avoided, while others - those who have put to death the carnal thoughts in Christ, have been crucified with Him and died to the world - they must be praised. Those who were not buried in Christ and were not resurrected with Him in baptism, but remain in spiritual death, are clearly dead and worthy of pity. They will not rise with Him until the thousand years are completed, that is, the time lasting from His first coming to the glorious second, but they will return to the earth as born of the earth, and not of the Spirit, because in their death is the beginning of their future torment. Those resurrected in the first resurrection, that is, freed from deathly thoughts and deeds, are blessed, for they will not experience the endless torment of the second death, but for a thousand years until the time of the dissolution of Satan and his deception of all nations, they will priest and reign together with Christ, not because after this they will be deprived of the Kingdom, but as those who will receive it undoubtedly and firmly at the end of the temporary and the onset of the eternal. The time that will pass from the release of the devil to his condemnation and punishment in Gehenna will be insignificant. Therefore, the words “there will be priests to God and Christ” must be understood as a repetition of the former, for the miracles of the saints, which we now see in experience, were still only future at the time of the revelation to the evangelist. So there are two deaths and as many resurrections. The first death is physical, sent as punishment for a person’s disobedience, and the second is eternal torment. And the first resurrection is a rebirth from dead works, and the second is the transition of the body from corruption to incorruption. Rev.20:7. When will the thousand years end? Some people calculated the indicated millennium, I don’t know why, as three and a half years that elapsed from the baptism of Christ until his ascension into heaven, after which the devil was allegedly freed. On the contrary, others believed that after six thousand years only the dead saints would be resurrected, so that they would enjoy pleasures and glory for a thousand years on the land where they had to endure torment, and after that there would come a general resurrection of both the righteous and sinners. The Church does not accept these interpretations, and therefore it is unnecessary to talk about them. And we, based on the words of the Lord to the Sadducees about the righteous, that they are “like the angels of God in heaven” (Matthew 22:30), and the words of the Apostle that “the kingdom of God is food and drink” (Rom. 14:17), we count a thousand years during the preaching of the Gospel. Because there is no need, as we talked about this earlier, to count this thousand years as a precisely defined number, but, as it is said in the Song of Songs: “A man will bear in his fruit a thousand pieces of silver. My grapes are before me: a thousand for Solomon, and two hundred for those who harvest the fruit thereof" (Song. 8:11, 12), where it is not the number that is indicated, but the abundance and excess of the harvest, so here is the perfect fruit of faith. And after this will come “the man of lawlessness, the son of destruction” (2 Thess. 2:3), yes, according to the Apostle, “all who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in unrighteousness” (2 Thess. 2:12), and according to the word of the Lord, who said: “I came in the name of My Father, and you do not accept Me: if anyone comes in his own name, you will receive him.” (John 5:43). Satan will be released from his prison and he will go out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, and gather them together for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. Then Satan, released from his imprisonment, as it is said, will deceive all nations and raise Gog and Magog to war to devastate the universe. Some believe that Gog and Magog are the midnight, remote Scythian peoples, whom we call the Huns, the most numerous and warlike of all earthly peoples. Only the Divine right hand keeps them from taking possession of the universe until the devil is freed. Others say that Gog, translated from Hebrew, means gathering or gathering, and Magog means exaltation or exalted, and that these names mean the gathering of peoples or their exaltation. We know that Ezekiel prophesied about these nations, saying: they will come in the last days with great power and will fall in the land of Israel, and their weapons, because of their multitude, will burn for seven years (Ezek. 39:4, 9). Some interpreters attributed these same words to the battle of the Assyrians with Sennacherib at Hezekiah. But that event happened long before Ezekiel's prophecy. Others attribute them to the defeat of the peoples who attacked Jerusalem, when the Jews wanted to renew and strengthen the walls of this city after the Babylonian captivity at the command of Cyrus the Persian and then Darius. Or it refers to the troops of Antiochus defeated by the Maccabees. But it is known that the coming of these peoples corresponds most of all to recent times, because the sacred books nowhere mention the wars of the Jews with the Scythians, they only talk about wars with neighboring peoples who were jealous of their sudden enrichment. And also because it is said about Gog that he has been preparing since ancient times and will come in the last times, and, finally, because in this Revelation, which predicts the future, it is said that Gog and Magog will appear at the end of the world. Rev.20:8. And they went out into the breadth of the earth, and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. Rev.20:9. And fire fell from heaven from God and consumed them; Rev.20:10. and the devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. Led by the devil and his demons, they will disperse from their places, like wild animals from caves, throughout the entire earth in order to take captive and destroy the camp of the saints, that is, the Church of Christ, founded and established at the four ends of the universe, not knowing that, according to the word of the Psalmist, not one Angel, but many will take up arms around those who fear God (Ps. 33:8). At the same time, they will want to take possession and captivate the new Jerusalem, the city beloved by God, from which the Divine law spread through the apostles throughout the entire earth (Luke 24:47). Here it is said that the Antichrist will sit in the church of God or the Jews, first Divine, and then destroyed for the daring rejection of Christ and, according to the expectation of the God-fighting Jews, having to be restored by the Antichrist, or, appropriating for himself what belongs to others and, according to the word of the Apostle, “showing to myself that God exists” (2 Thessalonians 2:4), he will actually sit in the Church of the Universal, on throne of God. But not for long. For he and the nations mentioned will be consumed by fire that came down from heaven, or that was visible, as in the time of Elijah, that burned up the two Pentecostals (2 Kings. 1:10), or the glorious coming of Christ will kill them “with the breath of His mouth” (2 Thess. 2:8), and throw their leader the devil, along with the Antichrist, into the lake of fire for eternal torment. But we, having learned from the Savior Christ to pray so that we will not be subject to temptation (Matthew 6:13), realizing our weakness, will ask Him constantly and diligently in order to avoid this temptation, not to see the coming of the Antichrist, nor the above-mentioned nations, nor deadly troubles that can force us to retreat from the saving faith. But, preserving, as far as possible, the testimony of our conscience intact and invulnerable and showing the flame of our love for Christ, who redeemed us with His Blood through good deeds, let us expect to receive eternal blessings, and may we receive them in our Savior and Redeemer Christ. With Him be glory, power, honor and worship to the Father with the Holy and Life-giving Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen. Article sixty-four About the One Sitting on the Throne, the General Resurrection and the Judgment Rev.20:11. And I saw a great white throne and Him sitting on it, from whose face heaven and earth fled, and no place was found for them. The “white throne” means the rest of God, which He will arrange in the saints, adorned with virtues, sitting on them as on a throne. “Running heaven and earth” - this means their destruction and renewal for torment, since there is no room for change in them. If the creation underwent corruption for our sake, then, according to the testimony of the Apostle, together with us “it will be freed from the work of corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Rom. 8:21), renewed in its best form, but not subject to final destruction, as Blessed Antipater and other saints thought about it. Blessed Irenaeus says: “Neither the composition nor the essence of the creation is destroyed or destroyed (for He who created it is faithful and true), but “the image of this world passes away” (1 Cor. 7:31), that is, what was the crime, for in this man became decayed, and therefore, according to Divine foreknowledge of all things, this image existed only for a while.” The Great Methodius says the following about this in his word on the resurrection: “It is impossible to accept the opinions of some that everything will perish to the ground and that there will be no earth, no sky, no air; because, although the whole world will be ignited with fire for its purification, it will not reach final destruction and destruction.” And then he continues: “And Paul clearly testifies, saying: “For the creation longs for the revelation of the sons of God: for the creation is subject to futility, not by will, but because of him that obeyed, in hope, that the creation itself shall be freed from the work of corruption,” etc. (Rom. 8:19-21). And earlier than this, Saint David, singing to the Lord, said: “Thou shalt follow thy Spirit, and they shall be created, and renew the face of the earth” (Ps. 103:30). And Isaiah says: “There will be... a new heaven and a new earth, and they will not remember the former, they will rise lower in their hearts, but joy and gladness will be found in it” (Is. 65:17, 18). And it is true that in the abundance of endless joy from the many rewards they will forget about the suffering, struggle and illnesses that happened during their exploits! He says in another place: “For as the heavens are new and the earth is new, the things I create remain before Me... Thus shall your seed and your name become” (Isaiah 66:22). So, the creature that was for our sake will change for the better with us, without passing through death, like us, into oblivion. Rev.20:12. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged according to what was written in the books, according to their deeds. “Dead” are called either all people who have died physically, or who have been killed by sins. They are “great and small” either by age, as stated above, or because they will be punished unequally, but in accordance with the number of their deathly deeds. Or the great ones are righteous, and the small ones are sinners, and souls that are indecent and worthless for the sake of their sins. “Open books” are the conscience and deeds of everyone. And one of them is the “book of life” with the names of saints written in it. Rev.20:13. Then the sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and hell gave up the dead that were in them; and each one was judged according to his deeds. From what each body was composed, from the same it will be composed again and given, whether it was committed to the earth or the sea. Death and hell are not living animals, as some people think, but “death” is the separation of the soul from the body, and “hell” is an invisible and unknown place where our souls departing from here go. The souls of those who performed dead deeds are dead, but the souls of the righteous, according to the Wise One, “are in the hand of God, and no torment will touch them” (Wis. 3:1). Rev.20:14. Both death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. Rev.20:15. And whoever was not written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire. “Hell and death were cast quickly into the lake of fire” - this means either what is written: “The last... enemy will be destroyed by death” (1 Cor. 15:26), or that the wicked demons will be condemned to fire - the perpetrators of the heavy and evil death of sin, who have hell as their refuge and send those who submit to them there for condemnation. Just as those who live in it are called a city, so here their inhabitants and culprits are called hell and death. Everything created by God is “good” (Gen. 1:31), and therefore this fire will devour and destroy everything that is not so, for it is written that “God does not create death” (Wis. 1:13). There will be no more death and corruption, but immortality and incorruption will reign. There is no need to be surprised that all those not written in the book of life will be thrown into the lake of fire, because just as “many mansions” (John 14:2) God and the Father have for those who are being saved, there are also many different ways and places of torment that those who are not worthy of being written in the book of life will receive, namely: some will be the most cruel, while others will be more moderate. You might be interested in: