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This is a non-WLC article. When using resources from outside authors, we only publish the content that is 100% in harmony with the Bible and WLC current biblical beliefs. So such articles can be treated as if coming directly from WLC. We have been greatly blessed by the ministry of many servants of Yahuwah. But we do not advise our members to explore other works by these authors. Such works, we have excluded from publications because they contain errors. Sadly, we have yet to find a ministry that is error-free. If you are shocked by some non-WLC published content [articles/episodes], keep in mind Proverbs 4:18. Our understanding of His truth is evolving, as more light is shed on our pathway. We cherish truth more than life, and seek it wherever it may be found. |
A key issue for Christians is the binding of Satan. The most common belief is that Satan will be bound in the future after the second coming of Yahushua. This belief has caused Christians to allow Satan much greater authority on earth than he deserves.
Revelation 20:1-3 describes the defeat of Satan by Yahushua.
And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain. He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations any more until the thousand years were ended.
In the Old Testament, all the nations except Israel lived in darkness. Satan will never be able to exercise that kind of power again.
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A chain is a symbol of restraining power. It stands for the real, sovereign, and restraining power of Yahushua. Up until the time of the cross, Satan was able to dominate the nations of the earth, but the death of Yahushua defeated him. He has no authority in heaven and can only work by deception. He still works, but his activity is limited. Yahuwah controls him and he cannot dominate the nations as he did previously. In the Old Testament, all the nations except Israel lived in darkness. Satan will never be able to exercise that kind of power again.
This is not a description of some future event. The Bible teaches very clearly that we do not have to wait for Satan to be bound in the future. He was defeated by Yahushua’s victory on the cross. When Yahushua triumphed on the cross, he disarmed Satan and all his powers by making a public spectacle of them (Col 2:15). He had already done everything that needed to be done to secure Satan’s downfall.
The impotence of Satan is demonstrated in Job 1,2. Before Satan could touch anything belonging to Job, he had to get permission from the Lord. He has no power over a righteous man, but the unrighteous are in his power. Because Job was one of the few righteous men in the Old Testament world, Satan could exercise considerable power. In this age, all Christians have been made righteous by the blood of Yahushua. Satan cannot touch them unless he gets permission from the Lord. He is an instrument that Yahuwah used to fulfill his purposes. Satan only has power over those who reject the salvation of Yahushua. Once the majority of people are converted, Satan’s power will be gone. Yahushua has bound him.
The reason Satan still seems to be so active is that the church has failed to realize the full extent of what Christ has achieved.
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The reason Satan still seems to be so active is that the church has failed to realize the full extent of what Christ has achieved. In binding Satan, Yahushua works through the church. He has placed the chain that binds Satan in the hands of his people. They must restrain Satan’s power over the nations. Yahushua won a judicial victory on the cross. When a decision is made in a court of law, it does not become a fact until the police enforce it. The church has the police power to enforce Yahushua’s judicial victory. Satan will not be fully bound until the church forces him to recognize the sentence that was passed against him at the cross.
The church has the power to bind Satan but is not using the authority that has been given to it. Satan will not be bound in some future event. He will be bound when the church becomes aware of its already binding power and begins to exercise that authority in Yahushua’s name. He said,
Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven (Matt 18:18).
Yahushua repeated this statement to show its importance (Matt 16:9). Satan is already bound. Yahushua is waiting for the church to tie him tight. The authority we inherit through sharing in the ascension will become a reality. Yahushua no longer works directly on the earth. He works through the Holy Spirit, moving in the lives of his people. It is the church that must bind Satan tight.
Satan is bound through the proclamation of the gospel. When the seventy disciples returned from their successful preaching mission, Yahushua said,
I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions, and to overcome all the power of the enemy (Luke 10:18,19).
As the church successfully proclaims the gospel of the cross, Satan and his angels lose their power over people’s lives.
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As the church successfully proclaims the gospel of the cross, Satan and his angels lose their power over people’s lives. The extension of the gospel’s influence limits their sphere of activity. When all the world is won for Yahushua, there will be no place for Satan on the earth.
The church also binds Satan through spiritual warfare (Eph. 6:10-12). When Yahushua ascended on high, all authority was given to him. What many Christians do not realize is that they share that authority. The Bible teaches that,
Yahuwah raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Yahushua (Eph. 2:6).
Not only was Christ raised to a position of authority, but those who are in Christ have also been raised with him in the Spirit. They share in his authority. The church can use this spiritual power to bind Satan. He can only act when sinners give him authority to do so. If the church really understood its privileged place, Satan would be already bound. This is why the saints are pictured as sitting on thrones.
Not only was Christ raised to a position of authority, but those who are in Christ have also been raised with him in the Spirit. They share in his authority.
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I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Yahushua and because of the word of Yahuwah. They had not worshipped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years (Rev 20:4).
Those faithful to Yahushua have been given authority to reign on his behalf. They are the ones who bind Satan.
The crucial question is this: when was Satan bound? The Bible teaches that he was bound at the cross. One last example is Matthew 12:29. Yahushua taught that Satan is bound. He could cast out evil spirits because the strongman had already been bound.
How can anyone enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? … (Matthew 12:29)
The fact that the early church was able to continue this deliverance ministry is proof that Satan was bound at the cross. We must accept the verdict of the Bible. Yahushua does not have to return to bind Satan. He has already done everything necessary to restrain him. We have to do our part.
This is a non-WLC article. Source: https://www.kingwatch.co.nz/Times_Seasons/False_Teaching/binding_of
We have taken out from the original article all pagan names and titles of the Father and Son, and have replaced them with the original given names. Furthermore, we have restored in the Scriptures quoted the names of the Father and Son, as they were originally written by the inspired authors of the Bible. -WLC Team
What the article argues
Satan was already bound at the cross. He is currently bound right now. The church holds the chain. Satan only seems active because the church hasn’t fully exercised its authority to restrain him. When the church fully proclaims the gospel, Satan will be completely bound. The binding of Revelation 20 is not a future event — it already happened at the crucifixion.
Problem 1 — The article directly contradicts Revelation 20’s plain language
Revelation 20:2-3 says an angel seized Satan, bound him, threw him into the abyss, locked it, and sealed it — specifically so he cannot deceive the nations anymore until the thousand years end.
The text describes a completed action with a specific purpose — preventing deception of the nations. Full stop.
The article claims Satan is already bound but the church needs to enforce the binding. But Revelation 20 doesn’t describe a judicial decision awaiting enforcement. It describes a completed imprisonment. The angel doesn’t issue a warrant — he physically seizes, binds, throws, locks, and seals. All past tense action verbs describing accomplished facts.
The article is importing a legal metaphor — judicial victory versus enforcement — that has no basis in the actual text.
Problem 2 — The article’s own logic refutes itself
This is the most devastating problem and the article essentially admits it without realizing.
The article states: Satan seems active because the church hasn’t exercised its binding authority. Then it states: Satan will be fully bound when the church forces him to recognize the sentence passed against him.
So Satan is simultaneously already bound AND not yet fully bound AND will be bound in the future when the church acts properly.
This isn’t theology. It’s a contradiction dressed in theological language. You cannot claim Satan is already bound while simultaneously explaining why he isn’t bound yet and predicting he will be bound in the future. These three claims cannot all be true at once.
Problem 3 — The Job argument backfires completely
The article uses Job 1-2 to argue Satan needs God’s permission before acting — therefore he is restrained and bound.
But notice what this actually proves. In Job, written centuries before the crucifixion, Satan already needed God’s permission before acting. So the cross added nothing in terms of Satan’s restraint — he was already operating under divine permission in the Old Testament.
The article is trying to argue the cross changed Satan’s status. But its own biblical example shows Satan was already operating under constraint before the cross. The argument defeats itself.
Problem 4 — The “nations in darkness” claim is historically false
The article states that in the Old Testament all nations except Israel lived in darkness under Satan’s domination, and that Satan can never exercise that power again following the cross.
But this is empirically falsifiable. Since the crucifixion — the supposed binding event — Christianity has coexisted with the continued rise and dominance of other religions, ideologies, and worldviews. Islam, which arose six centuries after the crucifixion, now has 1.8 billion adherents. Secular humanism dominates much of the developed world. Buddhism, Hinduism, and countless other traditions continue to flourish.
If Satan’s power to keep nations in darkness was broken at the cross — the nations remained remarkably dark by any theological standard the article would apply.
Problem 5 — Matthew 18:18 is being grotesquely misapplied
The article quotes Jesus saying whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and uses this to argue the church holds Satan’s chain and must bind him tight.
But Matthew 18:18 is about church discipline — resolving disputes between members, forgiving or retaining sins within the community. It has nothing to do with cosmically restraining a supernatural being. The article rips it completely out of context and transforms a passage about interpersonal conflict resolution into a mandate for spiritual warfare against Satan.
This is a textbook example of proof texting — finding a verse containing a word you need and ignoring its actual meaning entirely.
Problem 6 — The theology makes God dependent on human action
The article explicitly states Jesus is waiting for the church to tie Satan tight. Jesus no longer works directly on earth — he works through the church.
Think carefully about what this means. An omnipotent God who defeated Satan at the cross is now passive — waiting for humans to enforce his victory. The salvation of the world and the restraint of evil are dependent on whether the church figures out its authority and uses it properly.
This makes God extraordinarily weak and human beings extraordinarily powerful. It also conveniently explains away every failure — whenever evil persists or Satan seems active, the answer is always that the church hasn’t done its job properly. God is never responsible for the ongoing presence of evil. Humans always are.
This is a theodicy escape hatch, not a theology. It protects God from the problem of evil by making humans perpetually responsible for failing to restrain it.
Problem 7 — This article directly contradicts the previous worldslastchance articles
This is perhaps the most revealing problem of all.
The amillennial binding article argued Satan is already bound in a symbolic sense — his power to deceive nations has been fundamentally limited since the cross.
This article argues Satan is already bound in a judicial sense — but the church must enforce that binding through proclamation and spiritual warfare.
These are two different positions. Both published on the same website as if they represent the same theology. The site publishes whatever fits its general framework without apparent awareness that its own articles contradict each other on the central question of what the binding actually means and when it actually takes effect.
A site that publishes contradictory theological positions while claiming to publish only content in harmony with its beliefs has no coherent theology — just a collection of arguments that feel compatible with the general vibe of its commitments.
The meta-problem this article perfectly illustrates
The binding of Satan question is entirely an internal Christian debate about how to interpret one highly symbolic passage in the most contested book in the Bible — a book written in apocalyptic code for a first century crisis community.
Every position on this question — premillennial future binding, amillennial present symbolic binding, this article’s judicial binding awaiting church enforcement — requires extensive interpretive work to derive from the text. None of them are obvious readings. All of them require importing assumptions the text itself doesn’t provide.
The reason there are so many competing interpretations isn’t that scholars haven’t studied hard enough. It’s that the text is genuinely ambiguous because it was never written to be a precise theological proposition about Satan’s metaphysical status across millennia. It was written as crisis literature for people expecting imminent cosmic intervention.
Reading it as a detailed roadmap for spiritual warfare in the twenty-first century — as this article does — is simply a category error. You’re asking a text to answer questions it was never designed to answer.
And building a theology of Christian authority, spiritual warfare, and the church’s cosmic responsibility on that misreading is building on sand.
Which is exactly what is seen across worldslastchance articles. The foundation was never solid. Everything built on it reflects that instability — contradicting itself, ignoring evidence, and generating confident answers to questions the evidence cannot support.