Revelation 20:1-6
"And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years."
Context
The 'thousand years' of Revelation 20 has generated three major schools of interpretation -- premillennialism, amillennialism, and postmillennialism -- each reading the same text to vastly different conclusions.
Understanding Through Time
Some of the earliest church fathers, including Papias and Justin Martyr, held a literal premillennial view: Christ would physically return and establish a thousand-year earthly kingdom. Papias described this kingdom in vivid, material terms -- miraculous agricultural abundance and physical blessings. This 'chiliasm' (from the Greek 'chilia,' thousand) was common in the earliest centuries, influenced by Jewish apocalyptic expectations of a messianic age on earth before the final judgment.
Augustine in 'City of God' (Book 20) decisively shifted Western interpretation away from literal premillennialism. He argued the 'thousand years' symbolized the entire church age from Christ's first advent to His second coming. Satan was 'bound' by Christ's victory on the cross, limiting (but not eliminating) his power. The 'first resurrection' was spiritual (regeneration/baptism), not physical. This amillennial reading became dominant in Catholic and later Reformed theology for over a millennium.
The Calabrian abbot Joachim of Fiore proposed a novel trinitarian scheme of history: the Age of the Father (Old Testament), the Age of the Son (church age), and a coming Age of the Spirit. While not straightforwardly millennialist, his expectation of a future spiritual age within history influenced later postmillennial and progressive readings. His ideas were controversial and partially condemned but deeply influenced Franciscan spirituals, later Protestant progressivism, and utopian movements.
The major Reformation confessions (Augsburg, Westminster, Belgic) adopted Augustinian amillennialism. The Reformers rejected both literal chiliasm and Joachimite speculation. The thousand years was the present church age; Christ reigns now through His church and Word. They particularly opposed Anabaptist groups who proclaimed imminent millennial kingdoms. Later Puritan and Reformed theologians developed postmillennialism: the Gospel would progressively transform society before Christ's return, with the 'millennium' representing a golden age of Christian civilization.
Today three main positions coexist within evangelicalism. Historic premillennialism (George Eldon Ladd) expects Christ's return before a literal millennium but rejects dispensationalist details. Dispensational premillennialism (popular through the 'Left Behind' series) sees a pretribulation rapture followed by a seven-year tribulation and then a literal thousand-year reign. Amillennialism (dominant in Reformed churches) reads the thousand years symbolically. Postmillennialism has seen a modest revival. Each position claims strong exegetical support from the same text, illustrating how theological frameworks shape interpretation.