Romans 8:34 has Christ actively interceding for us.
Interceding against WHAT then if no accusations are taking place?
That is also a tension, and I can't firmly place myself within a Calvinist or Arminian camp. To be honest, I'm not sure Paul could either. Paul wrote Romans 9, which is one of the strongest arguments for Calvinism, but Paul also wrote Romans 10, which is one of the strongest arguments for Free Will and agency in our salvation.
But what Paul taught in 2 Corinthians 4:4 was that the god of this world, so.. active, currently deceiving Satan, has blinded (that is, past tense, it already happened) them.
This is not some neutral stance where they get introduced to the Gospel, reject it, and then Satan blinds them, because that also doesn't work, I rejected the Gospel the first time I heard it (although to be fair, I don't think it was really the Gospel but more of a Catholic works based salvation "gospel"), and many others reject it multiple times and some eventually come to faith, some do not, Paul persecuted Christians, oh he knew their beliefs, so he'd heard the Gospel, but he actively persecuted against it, so he rejected it, until the encounter on the road to Damascus. So rejecting the gospel does not lead to being blinded by Satan.. you were already blinded before you believed.
That's where the idea of Satan currently being bound falls flat in Paul's teachings. That Satan has already blinded people to the Gospel, and here that tension comes in, where is it a choice of the person to believe when they hear, or God granting repentance to them to be able to believe. Again I can't place myself firmly in either camp, and it's the writings of Paul that actually make it hardest to decide one way or the other.
Because the Amillennial doctrine that I'm arguing that Paul is against, is Satan being bound and not deceiving the nations. Paul teaches a dangerous Satan, Amillennialism teaches a toothless Satan (just watch sg whenever he goes into his doxology as defense posture).
1 Thessalonians 4 is irrelevant to that doctrine.
Many misunderstand the nature of Satan’s binding. They view this in a physical sense when they should be interpreting it
spiritually. Most people have no difficulty with recognising that the wicked generally are bound in sin or the chains of sin. They easily accept the figurative concept of this. Of course, we know the ungodly aren't necessarily imprisoned in real chains (although some are). This restraint does not render the rebellious human inoperative – quite the opposite. However, they are still
spiritually bound. The same applies to Satan's minions. They are
spiritual curtailed or bound from the cross in chains. That does not negate their movement. They are bound in order that they cannot prevent the light shining upon the Gentiles and consequently liberating them from their chains. This is the focus of the millennium, the binding of Satan in order to facilitate the enlightenment of the nations. This is happening now through the great spread of the Gospel (good news) to the Gentiles.
As I keep saying, and what many Premils miss, binding in Scripture did not denote immobility. Many Premils quote 1 Peter 5:8,
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” yet, they fail to complete the teaching of the passage or grasp the power the believer posses. The very next verse (1 Peter 5:9 affirms,
“whom resist stedfast in the faith.” We are part of a spiritual resistance movement against him.
Why do Premils never quote this whole passage when challenging Amillennialists who are highlighting the sovereign power and strength of Jesus.
While Satan resists the Church throughout the nations, the Church throughout the nations now resists Satan. Everything the devil says, we resist; everything the devil does, we resist. Through the work of the Cross and in the power of the Holy Spirit, the Church clearly possesses the power and capability to curtail and damage the devil’s strong power and influence, or why would God in any way instruct His people to “resist stedfast” that great foe
In fact, James 4:7 tells us what happens when you do resist,
“Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” This is a well-tested principle that the saints of old have proved down through the years. You
resist, he must
flee. When the devil plants a temptation, a doubt or a fear, you simply have to resist it, whereupon Satan must get his boots on and run. This word “flee” in the original is the Greek word
pheugo. It means to escape, flee away or vanish. It gives the idea of a worried foe frantically trying to get away from his captor. Now think about it. When you resist, he must disappear. The conflict today for the Church is not an earthly battle to possess an earthly territory but a spiritual battle to posses spiritual territory.
Some people speak so highly of the devil's power they render Christ and His body – the Church – as the impotent party in the conflict between good and evil and Satan and his minions as the dominant party. The truth is: every
true blood-bought child of the Lord has “overcome” the devil, and is overcoming the devil as they spread the good news of the kingdom to a deluded world. For the obedient believer standing upon the promises of God and using it to confront Satan, Scripture says in 1 John 2:13 & 14,
“ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.”
The people of God here are expressly said to have “overcome the wicked one.” They have an inner strength that enables them to overcome Satan; that strength is Jesus. Moreover, that revelation of Christ comes through the fact that “the word of God abideth in” them. 1 John 5:4-5 further states,
“For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?"
The whole tenure of this passage indicates conflict – conflict with a foe that is defeated. This passage is saturated in victory. The negativity surrounding the Premillennial view of the conflict between light and darkness is unfortunate.
1 John 4:4 says,
“Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world."
Satan is a little devil in regard to our big God.
So if it is not a physical battle with physical weapons it is a spiritual battle with spiritual weapons. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 says,
“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.”
Amils don't deny that the kingdom will arrive in all its fullness and final glory at Christ's Coming and we will reign eternally on the regenerated earth, but we reign now "in life" (Romans 5:17) as "kings and priests" (1 Peter 2:9, Revelation 1:5-6) advancing the battle for truth in enemy territory and reigning in spiritual authority over the kingdom of darkness. Our battle is not against
"flesh and blood" (Ephesians 6:12) but
“against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”
Many Premils mix up the current spiritual
kingship that has been bestowed upon the elect of God and which sees the Church invade Satan's spiritual domain, to that of our glorious eternal reign that occurs at the Second Advent. The Church's present battles are no longer physical (as in the Old Testament era), but rather spiritual today. To suggest that our
present kingship is devoid of
current power and spiritual authority, which sees us reign “in Christ,” is preposterous
, and is probably only espoused to prop up the Premil understanding of Revelation 20. We ARE kings now, we
do reign now "in life." However, when Christ comes we enter into the glory and full realisation of eternal
kingly position.
As ambassadors of another nation (a more powerful heavenly nation), we have been given authority over the devices of enemy. We can defeat in our lives and through the spread of the Gospel. Revelation 12:11 says,
“And they overcame him (Satan) by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.”
Satan is curtailed when the Church operates in and under the anointing and authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ’s life, death and resurrection have opened the door and bust the devil aside. The overcoming Church now sits in heavenly places with Christ Jesus.
Romans 8:37-39, declares,
“we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Wherever the Church would advance, the work of Satan would be bound!!!
