Showing posts with label amillennialism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label amillennialism. Show all posts

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Was Jesus an Amillennialist?

In Matthew 12, we see an account of an encounter between Jesus and the Pharisees. The Pharisees accuse Jesus of being possessed by Satan, and they claim that Jesus could cast out demons because of the Satanic power within Him. Jesus replies by telling them that Satan could not drive out demons because a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. He then comes at the issue again: "...how can anyone enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can plunder his house" (Matthew 12:29, NIV).

From the context, we understand that the "strong man" Jesus is referring to is Satan. Jesus says that the strong man's house can only be plundered after first tying up the strong man. Thus, it appears that Jesus is implying that Satan is (or will be) tied up so that His "house" (Earth) can be plundered. Jesus had just healed a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute, so we may infer that the "possessions" that Jesus wants to "carry off" are human beings. We know from other passages that the people of the world are slaves to Satan until they are redeemed through Christ, so the fact that Jesus would refer to people as Satan's possessions shouldn't be too surprising to us. But what about this part about Satan being tied up? Isn't Satan "a roaring lion," roaming about to find someone to devour (see 1 Peter 5:8)?