Thursday, May 05, 216
“Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time” (Revelation 12:12).
If we consider the whole picture,
there should be no doubt that this is Satan’s world rather than God’s. Paul
even refers to our era as “this present evil age” (Galatians 1:4).
However, Satan will not always
dominate planet earth. Bible prophecy reveals that an astounding series of
events will shake our world as never before and usher in a new age—a 1,000-year
era under the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Kingdom of God (Matthew
6:10; Luke 21:31).
This good news of the coming Kingdom
of God is at the heart of Christ’s teaching: “Jesus came to Galilee, preaching
the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the
kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel’ ” (Mark
1:14-15).
The transition from Satan’s domination
of the earth to the Lord Jesus Christ’s rule will be neither easy nor painless.
The prophet Daniel describes it as “a time of distress such as has not
happened from the beginning of nations until then” (Daniel 12:1, NIV). Christ
stated that no human being would survive if God did not intervene in world
affairs to establish His Kingdom, ousting Satan from his control over humanity
(Matthew 24:21-22).
Signs Of The End Of The Age
As the end of Christ’s earthly
ministry drew near, the disciples asked Him when the events leading to His
Kingdom’s establishment would occur: “Tell us, when will these things be? And
what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” (Matthew
24:3). The Lord Jesus summarized the trends and events that would characterize
that time. A quick review of the list reads remarkably like today’s headlines.
The Lord Jesus responded: “Take heed
that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ;
and shall deceive many” (Matthew 24:4-5, KJ V). (To see how this Christ’s
prophecy is being fulfilled, be sure to read Appendix F: “Satan: An Angel of
Light”)
The Lord was speaking here of
widespread false religion in His name—a great false Christianity.
He continued: “And you will hear of
wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things
must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation,
and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and
earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows”
(Matthew 24:6-8).
He described other significant
trends—persecution and hatred directed at God’s true servants, increasing
religious deception and the proclamation of the true gospel of the Kingdom of
God to all the world (Matthew 24:9-14).
The world, Christ said, would grow
increasingly dangerous as His return nears. “It will be a time of great
distress”, He warned, “such as there has never been before since the beginning
of the world, and will never be again. If that time of troubles were not cut
short, no living thing could survive; but for the sake of God’s chosen
it will be cut short” (Matthew 24:21-22, Revised English Bible).
Religious deception will continue to
increase, He said, followed by dramatic heavenly signs (Matthew 24:23-29).
These will be followed by a world-transforming event: “Then the sign of the Son
of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn,
and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and
great glory” (Matthew 24:30). “When you see all these things”, He tells us, “know
that it is near—at the doors!”
Satan’s Role In The End Time
The Lord’s prophecy is an overview
of end-time events. Many other prophecies, mostly in the book of Revelation,
fill in various details.
Satan will not relinquish his
kingdom without a fight. As the time of Christ’s return draws near, we can read
this sobering warning in Revelation 12:12: “Woe to the inhabitants of
the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath,
because he knows that he has a short time.” Many prophecies go on to
detail a frenzy of destruction directed at God’s Church, at the people
of Israel, at humanity as a whole, and at the returning Jesus Christ.
Satan’s wrath is focused principally
on those in the Church, symbolically represented by a woman in Revelation 12.
“And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her
offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of
Jesus Christ” (Revelation 12:17).
Religious persecution will again
rear its ugly head—at Satan’s instigation (Revelation 2:10). “Then they will
deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all
nations for My name’s sake”, warned Jesus. “And then many will be offended,
will betray one another, and will hate one another” (Matthew 24:9-10).
Mark preserves another chilling
detail from Christ’s prophecy about this promised persecution: “Now brother
will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up
against parents and cause them to be put to death” (Mark 13:12). Revelation
6:9-11 further describes this period of martyrdom.
Great Religious Deception Coming
We know that religious deception
will increase as Christ’s return draws near. Satan will have a direct hand in
the rise of a great leader who will play a pivotal role in a massive end-time
religious deception.
Writing of events preceding Christ’s
return, Paul tells us “that Day will not come unless the falling away comes
first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition” (2
Thessalonians 2:3). This man “opposes and exalts himself above all that is
called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God,
showing himself that he is God” (2 Thessalonians 2:4).
How could such a person claim to be
God and convince others to believe him? Paul adds that “the coming of the
lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in
all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of
evil that deceives those who are perishing” (2 Thessalonians 2:9-10, NIV).
These powerful miracles will convince many, but in reality they are the
deceptive handiwork of Satan.
Regrettably, this man’s deception
will take in millions of people. In the cataclysm that will mark the end of
this age, many will fall victim to a “powerful delusion” and “perish because
they refused to love the truth and so be saved” (2 Thessalonians 2:10-11, NIV).
Because “they refused to love the truth”, they easily will be deceived, taken
in by this impostor in a satanic end-time antichristian religious revival. Then
biblical ignorance will catch up with millions of people. Then to know the
truth about biblical prophecy will be important. Then millions will accept this
false religious leader as God in the flesh, and will be too late for them to
start knowing the truth.
This should be a sobering warning to
all of us. If we do not love the truth, if our beliefs are not firmly grounded
in the truth of God’s Word and we do not have the strength of character to hold
fast to them, we also could easily fall prey to this or other satanic
deceptions. It has happened before, and both the Lord Jesus and Paul assure us it
will happen again.
A Satanic War Against Humanity
Although Satan’s attitude of hatred,
greed and resentment has led mankind into countless wars down through history,
prophecy reveals that the devil will personally orchestrate one last great
worldwide conflagration shortly before Christ returns.
In Revelation 9:1-12 we read about
what appears to be an enormous military force depicted as a cloud of locusts
arising from a bottomless pit. Terrifying beings, locust like in appearance
with tails like scorpions and wings sounding as a large force of chariots and
horses—not modern helicopters, as some have suggested but demonic beings
—inflict people with pain that is compared to scorpion stings but without
killing them (Revelation 9:5-10). The end of these demonic beings is to cause
searing pain to disable enemies without permanent injury.
Leading this wave of suffering as
“king over them” is “the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew is
Abaddon, but in Greek he has the name Apollyon” (Revelation 9:11). These titles
mean “destruction” and “destroyer”, respectively. This being is the minion of
none other than Satan himself, whose character and reason for being are
perfectly summed up by those titles.
We then read of the rise of a
massive military force 200 million strong (Revelation 9:16). An unimaginable
carnage begins. A third of mankind— literally billions of people at
earth’s current population level—die in this great war (Revelation 9:15-18),
dwarfing all casualties in all previous wars. In this frenzy of destruction it
appears that, if Satan can no longer maintain his control on humanity with the
impending return of Christ, he will instigate the slaughter of as many as he
can. (To learn more about these prophetic events, keep in touch with us.)
Satan’s Last Stand
In Revelation 13 we find that Satan
will be behind the rise of two “beasts.” One will be an end-time coalition of ten
nations led by ten human rulers who will “make war with the saints and…overcome
them” (Revelation 13:1-7). The other will be the false religious leader we read
about earlier (Revelation 13:11-18)—who is also known as “the false prophet”
(Revelation 16:13; Revelation 19:20).
Demons—as spiritual emissaries of
the dragon (Satan), the Beast and the False Prophet—”go out to
the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the
battle of that great day of God Almighty” (Revelation 16:13-14).
Unaware of events going on behind
the scenes, these kings will be mere pawns in Satan’s plan. Their intent will
not be to fight each other— Satan’s objective will be to use these world’s
armies to fight against the Lord Jesus Christ at His return. These armies will
gather on a large plain adjoining “Armageddon” (Revelation 16:16)—that is, in
Hebrew, Har Megiddo (“hill of Megiddo”)—an ancient stronghold about 55 miles
north of Jerusalem. The final battle will take place at Jerusalem against the
returning Lord Jesus Christ (Zechariah 14:1-15).
Revelation 19 describes Christ’s
triumphant return to the earth: “I saw heaven standing open and there before me
was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he
judges and makes war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many
crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself.
“He is dressed in a robe dipped in
blood, and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following
him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Out of
his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. ‘He will
rule them with an iron scepter.’ He treads the winepress of the fury of the
wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND
LORD OF LORDS”
(Revelation 19:11-16, NIV).
These verses show conclusively that
all the armies of the earth will prove to be nothing compared with the power of
earth’s coming King, the Lord Jesus, the Messiah.
“And I saw the beast, the kings of
the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him who sat
on the horse and against His army. Then the beast was captured, and with him
the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those
who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two
were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the rest were
killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of Him who sat on the
horse” (Revelation 19:19-21).
With his armies defeated, Satan’s
kingdom is dismantled and destroyed. But Satan and his demons must be stopped
from continuing to deceive and manipulate mankind. And that is assured through
what John sees next in his vision: “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” (Revelation 20:1-3, NIV).
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Chapter 5: A WORLD SET FREE