We have remarked in another article that the positive teaching concerning the

Millennium is confined to TEN VERSES of Holy Writ, namely Rev. 20: 1-10. All else

must agree with what is there revealed before it can be admitted as a further revelation

concerning that prophetic period.

The opening verses speak of the binding of Satan, Rev. 20: 1-3, which will be one of

the great characteristics of this great Day. We have in these three verses, such words as

"key", "bottomless pit", "a great chain", "to lay hold", "bound", "shut up" and after the

thousand years "to loose". It would be an insult to the intelligence and the integrity of the

reader to set out a detailed "proof" that these terms mean all that we associate with

"imprisonment". The "bottomless pit" however calls for examination, although no one

we hope needs an explanation of the figure "bottomless", which simply means

"fathomless" or deep beyond human gauging.

The Greek word so translated is abussos, which becomes in English abyss, and this

Greek word is found in the Apocalypse seven times.  In Rev. 9: 1 and 2 it is joined

with the Greek word phrear "a well or pit", the remaining passages using the word

The way in which this word is distributed in the book of the Revelation clearly

indicates that it is of importance. Let us see.

A | 9: 1, 2-11. Key. Let loose. Locust scourge.

The Angel called in Hebrew Abaddon in Greek Apollyon.

B | 11: 7. The Beast ascends out of the abyss, overcomes saints.

B | 17: 8. The Beast ascends out of the abyss, Lamb overcomes (14).

A | 20: 1-3. Key. Shut up. Loose. Deceive.

Serpent called Diabolos (Greek) and Satan (Hebrews).

When we examine Rev. 13: 1 we learn that the Beast rises up (same word as

"ascend") out of the sea, and this proves a help not a problem, for we shall find that the

abyss is constantly associated with the sea. This of course we learn by considering its

usage in the Septuagint. We find it equated with the sea in Job 28: 14; 28: 16;

Psa. 33: 7; 42: 7; 77: 16; 135: 6; but more important still, we discover that in

all these passages, the Greek word translates the Hebrew tehom, "the deep" of Gen. 1: 2,

and of Gen. 7: 11, the flood of judgment before the advent of Man, and the flood of

judgment in the days of Noah. Psa. 104: 6 says "Thou coveredst it with the abyss as with

a garment: the waters stood above the mountains".  Psa. 106: 9 says "He rebuked the