Bound For 1000 Years

Nephi warned us that for those who are not “stirred up unto repentance… the devil will grasp them with his everlasting chains.”  The devil will seek to convince us that there is no hell and to those who will listen he will whisper that “until he grasps them with his awful chains, from whence there is no deliverance (2 Nephi 28:19, 22).  But in the justice of God, Satan will receive the same treatment for his actions.  Just as Abinadi promised Noah as he was being burned, “Ye shall suffer, as I suffer, the pains of death by fire” so too will Satan receive a just recompense after the Second Coming for seeking to grasp us in his chains (Mosiah 17:18).  One of the facts about the Millennium most often repeated in the scriptures is the fate of the devil: “Satan shall be bound” (D&C 43:31). 

                We learn of this binding of the adversary in several places in the scriptures.  In John’s vision showing the end of the world he recorded seeing this: “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, 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” (Revelation 20:2-3).  Nephi, who saw the same vision as John, likewise referred to this period in the Millennium: “And because of the righteousness of his people, Satan has no power; wherefore, he cannot be loosed for the space of many years; for he hath no power over the hearts of the people” (1 Nephi 22:26).  From these two references it appears that the power behind the binding is twofold: it is in part due to the righteousness of the people, but it is also a decree from God who—whether figuratively or literally—would send an angel with a chain to bind Satan and put him in a pit he could not escape from for a thousand years.  In our dispensation the Lord has repeated this several times.  We read that “Satan shall be bound, that he shall have no place in the hearts of the children of men” (D&C 45:55).  In other words, “in that day Satan shall not have power to tempt any man” (D&C 101:28).  The length of the captivity was emphasized again in the Olive Leaf revelation: “And Satan shall be bound, that old serpent, who is called the devil, and shall not be loosed for the space of a thousand years” (D&C 88:110).     
                Besides what we read in these scriptures, we don’t know the details of what will happen to the devil in these thousand years and how he stays bound.  President Joseph F. Smith said this, “As to whether the binding of Satan is a literal binding as with a chain or not, it matters not.  I am inclined to believe that the chain spoken of in the Bible, with which Satan is to be bound, is more figurative than real.  [Satan] will be bound both by the faith of the righteous and the decrees of the Almighty during the Millennial reign and will be cast down into hell” (see here).  I agree that it doesn’t really matter, but from the scriptures it does appear to be both “the faith of the righteous” and the “decrees of the Almighty” that expel Satan in the Millennium, and I think there is a pattern for us in our lives today.  We can diminish the influence and power of the adversary in the same way: through our righteousness and through the power of the Priesthood.  Mormon told us that Moroni’s righteousness was so great that the devil could not have power over him: “If all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men” (Alma 48:17).  And President Packer told fathers, “You have the power of the priesthood directly from the Lord to protect your home. There will be times when all that stands as a shield between your family and the adversary’s mischief will be that power” (see here).  So we must seek to expel the temptations of the adversary from us by living righteously and putting our trust in the Priesthood and its ordinances.  In short we must “build [our] foundation upon the rock of our Redeemer,” and Satan will have “no power over [us]” (Helaman 5:12).