Revelation 20:2

And he laid hold on the dragon, the old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years,

Dragon ... serpent ... devil ... and Satan ... Note the fourfold name of the evil one. This ties in with the 12th chapter where this quadruple designation first occurs (Revelation 12:9), and where are also mentioned the 1,260 days. Neither the 1,000 years here nor the 1,260 days there should be literalized. Both refer to the same period of time, all the time between the two Advents of Christ.

And bound him for a thousand years ... "This means during the entire gospel age."[10] The effective binding of Satan took place in the events of the Incarnation. Satan had already been thrown out of heaven (Revelation 12:7-9); therefore, it is some more restricted phase of Satan's binding that is revealed here.

The "binding" here is exactly that referred to in Matthew 12:29, where Jesus said, concerning his salvation of people, "How can one enter into the house of the strong man (Satan) and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man?" Every saved person since Christ carne is proof of Satan's being bound throughout the whole period of anybody's being saved "in Christ." Not one soul could ever have been saved unless Satan had first been bound.

But people will say, "Well, if Satan is bound now, I would sure hate to see him loosed!" Maybe Christ knows Satan a lot better than people who talk like that. The world itself will probably not stand a month when Satan is finally loosed "a little while."

Just how is Satan bound? He is bound in that he cannot destroy the Bible; he cannot tempt a child of God more than he is able to bear; God makes a way of escape with every temptation, etc. See more on this in my Commentary on Matthew, p. 172. Pieters mentioned this interpretation as being favored by Morris, Lenski, Warfield, Masselink, Milligan, etc., adding that, "There is truth in it."[11] We find any other view untenable. The period of Satan's binding is coextensive in every particular with the times when people are being saved by obeying the gospel. Again, to paraphrase Christ's question, "How could Christ save anyone at any time when Satan was not bound?" (Matthew 12:29).

[10] Ibid.

[11] Albertus Pieters, op. cit., p. 299.