I know that Satan is to be bound for a thousand years so he will have no influence in causing war. How soon will this take place?

With Satan bound the world will be a different place. War, and other such evils have been inevitable since the fall of our first parents, Adam and Eve. A few years after their expulsion from Eden witnessed, in essence, the first war: Cain murdered his brother Abel. We say this because war in its simplest form is �brother against brother,�  inspired by greed, hatred and envy. (All mankind is related through Adam�Acts 17:26)

With Satan bound his evil influence will be removed. Satan, the mastermind of all evil in the world has been in the background influencing fallen human nature. (Rom. 1:28-32) Since his fall from the heavenly realm (Luke 10:18; Ezek. 28:15, 16; Isa. 14:12-14) he is incapable of doing right and his goal is to separate man from his God. The nature of sin and evil is always downward and corrupts both the mental and physical faculties.

Satan has used every means available to entrap mankind and alienate him from God. Satan�s aspiration, in his original purpose: to be like the most high in ruling over other beings. (Isa. 14:14) But Satan has only been �permitted� (by God) to reign over mankind and that for a brief period of time. By this means God has given mankind and the heavenly hosts a great lesson in the evil consequences of disobeying God and it will be a lasting lesson throughout all eternity of what results when sin is practiced. (Ezek. 18:20)

The scriptures speak of the �times of restitution� (Acts 3:19-21) when all mankind will be resurrected to this earth and have the opportunity to gain all that has been lost through the fall: life, liberty, a relationship with God, etc. (Haggai 2:7; Rev. 21:4). At this time Satan will be completely bound and restrained from corrupting the minds and hearts of man.

From one standpoint, Satan�s binding has already commenced. There are stages to him being bound. The enlightenment of the past 100 plus years, Satan�s influence in many areas has been restrained. Because of the great �increase of knowledge� (Dan. 12:4) from the end of the nineteenth century to the present, he no longer holds sway over many of our social, religious and political institutions that he previously controlled and that have entrapped and enslaved mankind. Knowledge is power and the people have been casting off the shackles that have entrapped them into sin and death.

What we are waiting for is the personal binding of Satan where he is figuratively put into a pit, restrained from interacting and influencing mankind. Without his influence, �the people will learn righteousness,� because God will �turn to the people a pure language��unbridled truth on every subject that will make them truly free. (Isa. 26:9; Zeph. 3:9)

At the end of the thousand year reign of Christ, Satan will be let loose to test mankind. All who prove faithful will live forever on the earth, in perfection and perfect harmony with God and their fellow man. But Satan will experience the Second Death, a literal death from which there is no recovery. He will simply go out of existence and eventually never be remembered.