The Little Season of Revelation 20: 3

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The Little Season of Revelation 20: 3

In end time Bible prophecy there are implications for periods in which God allows Satan more freedom to hinder the Gospel than in other periods.

"And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
2. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
3. And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season." Revelation 20: 1-3

God had allowed Satan more freedom to hinder God's work of redemption at the time in the history of redemption right before Jesus Christ appeared. At the time Christ appeared, God put some more restraint on Satan for a period of time so that the Gospel could go out.

The metaphor for this restraint of Satan is that Satan was cast into the bottomless pit. The thousand years is also not literal. Christian Zionism insists that all scripture is to be interpreted literally, which destroys the meaning or knowledge within many end time Bible prophecies, including Revelation 20: 1-3

The falling away prophecy in II Thessalonians, plus Luke 13:21 and the prophecies in I Timothy and II Timothy which also talk about a falling away from sound doctrine implies that Satan's freedom to hinder the truth has been increased in this period.

Christ repeats his warning in Matthew 24 that the tribulation period will be a time of deception (Matthew 24: 4, 5, 11,24).

The period of the little season in Revelation 20: 3 is to be a time of deception, when, as Matthew 24: 11 says "And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many."

"But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
2. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.
3. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not." II Peter 2: 1-3

But - Revelation 12: 15-17 says that at the time when the Serpent-Dragon is casting a flood out of his mouth (to inspire the number of false prophets to speak and write lies in the period of deception of the Little Season), the remnant has the testimony of Jesus Christ. Daniel 11: 33 says "they that understand among the people shall instruct many..."

This means the Little Season is characterized as being a period of time in which there is a conflict, a "war," going on between those who promote and believe lies - false doctrines - and those who teach the truth. This is the Gog-Magog war of Exekiel 38-39. But dispensationalism or Christian Zionism insists the Gog-Magog war is literal and Russia is now preparing to take over Syria and will invade Isreal. In fact, rather than in the fable of dispensationlalism where the Russians are preparing to invade Israel, now under Putin the Russians are opposing ISIS.

Events during the 19th century set up the situation such that out of several false doctrines promoted then - Mormonism, Christian Science, Jehovah Witness, dispensationalism, etc, - dispensationalism arouse as the one false doctrine which took over many protestant denominations by the middle of the 20th century, when the Little Season might be said to have begun in full force.

 

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The Little C Church and the Capital C Church

The Little C Church and the Capital C Church

The Little C Church and the Capital C Church

The little c church, translated from ekklesia, is the meeting, assembly or congregation. The capital C Church implies it is the Body of Christ (Romans 12: 5), the elect (Colossians 3: 12), the saints (Colossians 1: 12) and the sons of God (Romans 8: 19). In the New Testament, ekklesia is always used to identify a local assembly or several local assembles - except in Colossians 1: 18 and Colossians 1: 24.

But in Philemon 1: 2, which is a short letter considered to be written at the time of Paul's imprisonment in Rome in about 58 to 62 A.D., Paul used ekklesia to refer to a local church. Philemon 1: 2 says "And to our belived Apphia and Archippus our fellowsoldier, and to the church in thy house."

If Paul in Colossians 1: 18 and 1: 24 intended to change the use of ekklesia from being a local congregation of Christians to being equal to the Body of Christ, the elect of God, he would likely have been consistent in its use in Colossians, Philemon and also in Ephesians. But he uses ekklesia in Colossians 4:15-16 twice to refer to a local assembly.

Ekklesia, translated as church, is used a number of times in the Book of Revelation by John, mostly in Revelation chapters one, two and three, but once in Chapter twenty-two. In Chapters one, two and three ekklesia (church) is always used to refer to a local assembly or congregation.

The Holy Spirit, inspired both Paul and John to write what they wrote. If the Holy Spirit had intended to make ekklesia equal to the Body of Christ and to the elect or chosen of God, then the Book of Revelation would have continued that change.

The George Ricker Berry Interlinear Greek-English New Testament has, for example, for Revelation 2: 1, "To the angel of the Ephesian assembly write, ..." He uses assembly for ekklesia consistently in Chapters Two and Three.

Tyndale in his 1526 English New Testament consistently translated ekklesia as congregation, except for Acts 14: 13 and Acts 19: 37 where he used churche, meaning a pagan place of worship. Tyndale broke with Catholic tradition and used congregation for ekklesia something which might have contributed to his being strangled at the stake by the Catholics.. The capital C Church is very important to the Roman Catholics, because it is an institution in which a clergy class rules over the people.

Any doctrine is established by the original meaning of the Hebrew or Greek words used to express that doctrine. A translation into English should not change that doctrine. Strong's Exhaustive Concordance defines ekklesia, number 1577, as "a calling out, i.e. (to) a popular meeting, especially a religious congregation..."

The old English word circe, chirche, kirk or churche is said to have meant the house of a lord, a place of pagan worship, or circe, the Greek goddess. But circe, or churche was redefined by the clergy. Neither churche as a house of a pagan lord or circe as the Greek goddess have the same meaning as the Greek word ekklesia.

Why was the church redefined, and what did it come to mean?

"The word "church" was used by Theodore Beza in 1556, a Protestant, who followed John Calvin at Geneva, Switzerland. As a Presbyterian, Beza believed in the idea of a Catholic Church and its hierarchical form of government and therefore chose to support this false concept by using the word "church" instead of "assembly." The reason is obvious in that the use of the word "congregation" or "assembly" would not support his church's hierarchical form of church government. William Whittingham's Testament of 1557 followed Beza's usage of "church" and was actually the first edition of the Geneva Bible and was a revision of the Tyndale New Testament."

The King James Version followed the Geneva Bible in translating ekklesia as church.

See I Peter 5:2-3 which says that what we call priests and preachers are to feed God's people, but they are not to constrain the people of God, are not to make money from feeding the people of God, and are not to be lords over them. This identifies how the priests and hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church redefined the ekklesia (Greek), the Ecclesia (Latin) and the churche (early English) so that the priests and religious hierarchy could rule over the people.

The meeting, assembly, or congregation is not the same as the Body of Christ, the elect, the saints, the saved, or the sons of God. If the congregation is the same as the Body of Christ, the elect, the saints, the sons of God and the saved, then there could be no falling away of II Thessalonians 2: 3-4, no leavening of the kingdom of God in Luke 13: 18-21, no false prophets and false teachers in II Peter 2: 1-3 who bring in damnable heresies, no departing from the faith in I Timothy 4: 1-2, no resisting of the truth in II Timothy 3: 8, no failure to endure sound doctrine in II Timothy 4: 3, no absence of the voice of the bridegroom and of his bride in Revelation 18: 23, and there would be no call to come out of her in Revelation 18: 4.