Angels and Demons Part 4

Greetings,

                We are now in the fourth part of our series on fallen angels and demons. Last week we left off by stating that the war in heaven described by Revelation 12:7-9 may have actually taken place while Jesus walked the earth. This week we are going to build upon this thought. This will allow us to understand what truly comes of the hosts of heaven that rebel with Satan in Revelation 12:4. We have already established that demons are the departed spirits of nephilim (hybrids). Since we primarily encounter demonic activity (as opposed to fallen angelic activity) in the earth, where are these heavenly hosts that followed Lucifer?

                Before answering that question let’s return to the war in heaven and look at the passage again. This time I have included verse ten which describes the results of this particular war.

“And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come [1] salvation, and [2] strength, and the [3] kingdom of our God, and the [4] power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.” (Revelation 12:7-10)

Verse 10 is the true crux of this passage. It describes the results of the war, and when we understand the results we realize that these are the promises associated with the salvation we currently possess. These promises didn’t come prior to the Garden of Eden nor are we still waiting for them. In other words, because of the stated results, this war must have ended prior to the resurrection of Jesus. As we will discover, the true ending of this war came as a result of the work that Jesus accomplished between His death and resurrection. Let’s begin by looking at the results.

1.       Salvation - “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9–10).

2.       Strength – “And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

“I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4:13).

3.       Kingdom - “I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 1:9).

“Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son” (Colossians 1:13).

4.       Power of His Christ - “And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:12–13).

                Could the Bible really be any clearer about what resulted from this war? I don’t think so. Everything that came about with the end of this war aligns perfectly with what the Bible discusses in regards to the promises of salvation in Jesus Christ. Therefore, this becomes the third definite angelic rebellion, the first being the fall of Lucifer and the second being the rebellion of the angels involved in Genesis 6. The concept of multiple angelic rebellions is what scripture actually speaks to. There was not just one rebellion prior to the fall of man.

                Moving forward, it was the hosts of heaven referenced by Revelation 12:4 that Jesus spoiled and triumphed over between His death and resurrection.

                “And having spoiled principalities and powers [types of angelic spirits], he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.” (Colossians 2:15)

                This is why when Jesus was resurrected He explained that He had all authority in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18). This is also why we now have the victory in all things through Christ Jesus (1 Corinthians 15:57). However, this is not where the story ends. By the time we reach the New Testament Epistles we are told where the rebellious heavenly hosts (not associated with the pre-flood incident) are currently found. We are told that they reside in something called heavenly places.

                “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12 NKJV)

                I’ve explained heavenly places before so I’m going to move right along. The fallen angels that rebelled with Lucifer in Revelation 12:4, as a result of the work of Jesus, are largely found in the heavenly places of the second heaven. Note that there do seem to be some that are still found in the earth like Lucifer (1 Peter 5:8).  Heavenly places can also be understood as alternate dimensions. Although there are ways for these beings to have some degree of influence upon the earth, many of them are trapped where they are. This is why groups like the illuminati will conduct very powerful rituals to bring these beings over for brief amounts of time in order to communicate with them. Consider this testimony from one woman who claims to have been involved with this kind of activity.

                “…during the rituals, you had to have psychic ability. You have to be very powerful in that way to call out The Old Ones…that come from another dimension. They actually materialize from out of another dimension, and are present at rituals. And they are so powerful, and there is such an evilness about them, that they want out of this other dimension. And they have to be called out by someone who has that power.”

-          Arizona Wilder

Not only can they be brought here but there are apparently ways for humans to travel to where these beings are located. Consider this quote:

“Archiometry… is a very advanced branch of black magic and voodoo, which involves cultivating the ability to enter into alternate universes, and then you go into these universes and you try and energize the universe, become the god of that universe, and then draw power from that universe back into your own universe. This started out, basically, as part of the worship of the star god Sirius, which is known in Egypt as Set, which is the Egyptian version of the Devil. The idea is that because there was a black dwarf star of Sirius next to the white star Sirius, it became known as Sirius A and Sirius B. Ancient magicians realized that they could use that black star as a gateway into an alternate universe, and so that’s how they discovered universe B. Then later on there was universe C and D and E and etcetera, etcetera… The person who comes back invariably seems to have amped up their power by a whole order of magnitude… It’s believed by these people [that] this is a very easy way of becoming a living god… The fact of the matter is [that] you‘re doing it by demonic power and if you’re indeed entering other universes those are universes that are populated by extremely evil beings and extremely wise cruel beings.”

-          Bill Schnoebelen (Interview with an Ex-Vampire DVD)

What keeps these beings where they are? This is the job of the restrainer reference in 2 Thessalonians 2:7. We will be picking up here next week…

Angels and Demons Part 3

Greetings,

                We have spent the past two weeks scripturally proving that angels and demons are in fact two different classes of beings. In order to come to this understanding it became necessary to prove that giants (otherwise known as nephilim) were hybrids. They were half man and half angel. This week we are going to dive further as we begin to flesh out what this means for us today.

                We are now going to return to the topic of angels. We have already gone over the fact that Lucifer was the first angel to rebel. However, when we took a closer look at what happened during the Genesis 6 incident we realized that Lucifer had little if any involvement in that rebellion. This is further proven in that while the angels discussed in Genesis 6 were cast into hell (2 Peter 2: 4-5) and placed in everlasting chains under darkness (Jude 6) Satan wasn’t. Satan was clearly roaming the earth during the time of Job.

                “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them. And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.” (Job 1:6-7)

The fact that there were two separate rebellions proves something important for us. There were and have historically been multiple angelic rebellions. This week we are going to discuss how this relates to the twelfth chapter of Revelation. Instead of jumping right into a particular verse and using it out of context to prove something we think we should believe, we will begin at the beginning.

“And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.” (Revelation 12:1-2)

There is a great wonder in heaven. As we proceed to define this wonder we are going to allow the Bible to interpret itself. In other words, where do we see the Bible using the same description and how does that fit with what we are being presented with here? In the book of Genesis, one of the twelve sons of Jacob (renamed Israel) is Joseph. He has a dream in which the sun the moon and eleven stars bow down to him. That dream is interpreted by his father who responds as follows:

“And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?” (Genesis 37:10)

Based on this interpretation Jacob is represented by the sun, his wife is represented by the moon, and the twelve stars are the twelve tribes of Israel. Thus the woman that is in the midst of all of these symbols represents the nation of Israel. Sure enough, Israel is represented by a woman on numerous occasions throughout scripture (Hosea 3:1, Ezekiel 36:17). Therefore, Revelation 12:2 is describing the time when the nation of Israel was ready to deliver the Messiah to the world. This is the exegetical timeframe for the next comment.

“And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.” (Revelation 12:3-4)

As we read the next portion of Scripture we see a dragon having seven heads and ten horns. We know that this is a symbolic representation of Satan because Revelation 12:9 says so. Regarding the seven heads and ten horns, heads on a beast are scripturally significant of successive kingdoms while horns tend to mean rulers within a kingdom ruling at the same time. In any case, the tail of this dragon draws a third of the stars of heaven and casts them to the earth. Allowing the Bible to define itself, stars are in this case are symbolic of angelic beings (Revelation 1:20).

Notice that in verse 4 the purpose for drawing them to the earth is clearly given. It is to devour the child, the Messiah, as soon as it is born. The timeframe for this angelic rebellion led by Lucifer does not seem to be prior to the Garden of Eden. If we accurately exegete the passage and simply read what it says it gives us a timeframe of some point prior to the birth of Jesus (but after Israel becomes a nation).

Verses 5 and 6 go on to discuss that Jesus was born anyway, He was not devoured, and He was ultimately caught up unto God. As we know Jesus lived, died a horrific death upon the cross, was raised to life, and at some point afterwards was caught up into heaven. Verse 6 goes on to discuss the nation of Israel and how she will flee into a place prepared for her in the wilderness for 1260 days. This seems to jump forward in history quite a bit correlating with the timeframe given for the coming great tribulation (Daniel 9:27, Daniel 11:31, Matthew 24:15-21, Revelation 13:5-7).

The passage in Revelation 12 picks up in verse 7 and now we are at a significant war in heaven.

“And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” (Revelation 12:7-9)

In this war Satan and the fallen angels with him are cast out of heaven. The question is: when does this war take place? Some have suggested that it happened prior to the Garden of Eden. If this were true, why is Satan still coming before God in the book of Job? This conclusion makes no sense. The passage is clear that after this war “their place was no longer found in heaven.”

Others have said that this war is yet to come. They suggest that during the great tribulation Satan will make war with heaven. Could that be what this passage is referring to?  

I am firmly persuaded that neither of these possibilities is the truth of the matter. Instead, I am convinced that this war actually occurred and came to its end during the time that Jesus conducted His ministry on earth. In order to grasp this, it is essential to understand the implications of the next verse: Revelation 12:10.

To be continued…