The
Final Humiliation
“Then the dragon
was enraged at the woman and went off
to make war against the rest of her
offspring – those who obey
God’s commandments and hold to
the testimony of Jesus…. He was
given power to make war against the
saints and to conquer them. And he
was given authority over every tribe,
people, language and nation.”
- Revelation
12:17; 13:7
If you read through
Revelation 12, you will discover that
the devil was humiliated five times
in that chapter. In verse 4, the
devil tried to kill Baby Jesus
through the sword of King Herod, but
he failed. (Matthew 2:16) In verse 5,
the devil was able to kill Jesus
through the Jews, but he could not
keep Jesus in the tomb. (Acts
10:39,40) In verses 6 and 14, the
devil tried to destroy the believers
in Christ for 1,260 years, but the
church went into hiding, and
God’s Word and His people
survived. In verse 7, the devil tried
to hold his position in Heaven’s
senate (Job 1:6,7), but Jesus took
his chair. The devil was thrown out
of Heaven on Resurrection Sunday!
(John 12:31; Revelation 12:8,9) In
verse 15, the devil tried to
terminate the Protestant Reformation
through war in Europe (Psalm
124:2-4), but God opened a place of
religious refuge for Protestants that
was the United States of America.
Therefore, after being humiliated
five times, the devil is
understandably furious and focused on
the next war. He knows that his time
is short (Revelation 12:12), and he
is expecting that was six will begin
any day. (Revelation 12:17) The was
described in Revelation 13:1-8.
This may
surprise you, but God will allow the
devil to win the upcoming war. Read
this twice: “… He was
given power to make war against the
saints and to conquer them.
And he was given authority over every
tribe, people, language and
nation…. For forty-two
months.” (Revelation 13: 7
italics mine) How does the devil
achieve total control of Earth?
Violence, idolatry,
moral degeneracy and sexual
immorality have filled up
Earth’s cup of sin. Since 1994,
the four angels (Revelation 7:1-4)
have been holding back God’s
judgments for almost ten years. Soon,
Jesus will pummel Earth with a series
of devastating judgments. Jesus will
startle the world with the reality of
His coming kingdom. Jesus intends to
separate the sheep from the goats
with a test of worship. His coming
judgments will include a global
earthquake, a swath of meteoric
firestorms (which will dwarf the
recent fires in California), two
horrific asteroid impacts, and
afterwards, great darkness will cover
a third of Earth. (This darkness may
be caused by ejecta released from
many volcanos.) Altogether, these
judgments will cause the sudden death
of 1.5 billion people (Revelation
6:8), and as you might expect, the
survivors will be frightened and
subdued beyond words. Because the
governments and infrastructures of
the world will be in shambles,
political leaders will turn to their
religious leaders for answers. The
religious leaders of the world will
unanimously agree that a Crisis
Government should be created to
appease God so that His judgments
will cease – or no one will
survive His wrath. The Bible
indicates that political leaders will
“go along” and the Crisis
Government will demand that everyone
worship God.
The word
“worship” is mentioned
three times in Revelation 13:4 and 8
because the leaders of the Crisis
Government will declare worship to be
THE solution to appeasing God’s
wrath and who can disagree? Think
about this: When the infrastructures
of communication, transportation,
commerce, manufacturing and medical
care are in shambles, when 1.5
billion people lie unburied in the
streets, and when thousands of
coastal cities have totally
disappeared because of the tidal
waves caused by an asteroid impact
upon an ocean, who will be able to
argue that worship isn’t THE
solution? Desperate circumstances
justify desperate actions. Even the
144,000 will be saying, “…
Worship Him who made the Heavens, the
Earth, the sea and the springs of
water.” (Revelation 14:7)
The Bible says, “The whole
world was astonished and followed [did
not resist] the beast [the
Crisis Government]. (Revelation 13:3,
insertions mine) In other words, a
time and a circumstance is coming
when the diverse religions of the
world will agree that worshiping God
is THE solution to appeasing
God’s anger. In this context, a
searching argument will rise: What
does God require for worship?
By definition, worship
is an act of submission, showing
respect for God’s authority.
Remember the story of Cain and Abel?
Both men worshiped God, but God
refused to accept Cain’s worship
because Cain did not submit to
God’s demand for an animal
sacrifice. (Genesis 4, 1 John 3:12)
This made Cain angry and he killed
his brother who humbly submitted to
God’s authority. There is
important end-time parallel here. The
devil will enable demonically
controlled religious and political
leaders to enforce laws demanding
worship in ways that are blatantly
contrary to the law of God. However,
the saints will choose to obey
God’s commandments
(specifically, the fourth
commandment) and refuse to obey the
laws of the Crisis Government.
Consequently, demonically controlled
people will persecute the saints for
religious reasons for 42 months.
For fear of persecution, “All
inhabitants of Earth will worship the
beast [the Crisis Government]
–all whose names have not
been written in the Book of Life
belonging to the Lamb that was slain
from the creation of the world.”
(Revelation 13:8) Even though the
devil will be successful for 1,335
days, his reign will end. The devil
will be soundly defeated in his
seventh war against God, and he will
be destroyed in his eighth.
“For the time
will come when men will not put up
with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit
their own desires, they will gather
around them a great number of
teachers to say what their itching
ears want to hear. They will turn
their ears away from the truth and
turn aside to myths.”
- 2
Timothy 4:3,4
During the past five
years, terrorists have used the
murder/martyrdom technique to draw
attention to their causes. Of course,
murder/martyrdom dates from antiquity
(review Samson’s death in Judges
16:30), but the frequency of people
killing themselves in order to kill
others has grown substantially in
recent years. Terrorism is a demonic
genie that has been let out of the
bottle in which no one can put back.
The world cannot return to where it
was before 9/11. The war in Iraq
proves that even the most powerful
and best-equipped army on Earth
cannot stop sneaky acts of violence
against unsuspecting civilians.
Every time I hear of a murder/martyr
attack, I think of this text: “The
Lord saw how great man’s
wickedness on the earth had become [in
Noah’s day], and that every
inclination of the thoughts of his
heart was on evil all the time….
So the Lord said, “I will wipe
mankind, whom I have created, from
the face of the earth – men and
animals, and creatures that move
along the ground, and birds of the
air – for I am grieved that I
made them.’” (Genesis
6:5,7, insertion mine)
The bulk of
today’s murder/martyrdom
phenomenon springs from hatred, and
as strange as this may sound, humiliation
is the root cause. Lucifer was
the first to be humiliated when the
Father told him that he could not
have the exalted position and worship
that belonged to Jesus. (Isaiah
14:13-15; Ezekiel 28:13-17) Deep
hatred caused Lucifer to lie and
scheme among the angels. He
eventually led one-third of the
angels to join in an attempt to
murder Jesus so that he could take
Christ’s place. Murder was the
only way he could achieve what he
wanted. Centuries later, when Jesus
publicly humiliated Jewish leaders
with their own words, they wanted to
kill Him. Jesus responded, “You
belong to your father, the devil, and
you want to carry out your
father’s desire. He was a
murderer from the beginning [of
sin], not holding to the truth,
for there is no truth in him. When he
speaks lies, he speaks his native
language, for he is a liar and the
father of lies.” (John 8:44,
insertion mine) Jesus said Lucifer
was a murderer from the beginning
because hatred is the natural
response of the carnal heart when
humiliated.
Cain was humiliated
when God showed deference to
Abel’s sacrifice. Instead of
asking himself why God did not honor
his offering, Cain loathed Abel. He
suspected that God would make Abel
“the first born of
creation” and rather than repent
of his arrogance, Cain killed Abel.
Fro similar reasons, the Jewish
leaders murdered Jesus. His wisdom
and teachings humiliated them and
they did not want Him to take their
place. (Acts 10:39; Luke 13:17; John
11:50; 12:10) Hatred rises when
humiliation occurs and unless there
is a speedy recovery through the
renewing power of the Holy Spirit,
hatred can fester into a gnawing
desire for revenge and retaliation.
Because hatred leads
to murder, the Bible declares, “Anyone
who hates his brother is a murderer,
and you know that no murderer has
eternal life in him.” (1
John 3:15) Of course, there are
different forms of humiliation, but
the outcome depends upon the core
attitude of the heart. If a person
has a meek attitude, humiliation is a
powerful learning experience. If a
person has a proud heart and a
stubborn head, humiliation can be
devastating. In this latter case,
hatred forms because the carnal heart
hates humiliation – being
made to appear inferior. Hatred
starts as a feeling and ends up as an
attitude. Jesus said, “Everyone
who does evil hates
the light, and will not come into the
light for fear that his deeds will be
exposed.” (John 3:20,
italics mine) So, what happens when
pride and religious arrogance are
humiliated by truth? The murder of
Jesus answers the question.
We have entered an age
of rage, anger, and hatred. Social
tensions are mounting. Economic
tensions are high. Ethnic tensions
are growing. Religious tensions are
evident. The world is rapidly coming
to a boiling point, which brings me
to the point mentioned in the first
part of this segment. During the
Great Tribulation, there will be a
bold and glorious presentation of
God’s truth. The 144,000 will
humiliate the religions of the world
with speech inspired by the Holy
Spirit, accompanied by powerful signs
and miracles. Hatred will rise up in
the hearts of those who hate truth.
No wonder Jesus said, “A
man’s enemies will be members of
his own household.” (Matthew
10:36) Love for truth is not genetic.
Love for truth has nothing to do with
church experience or affiliation.
Love for truth, like hatred, begins
as a feeling and grows into an
attitude; but unlike hatred, love
sets us free to learn more truth.
Love enables us to forgive our
enemies and leave revenge in
God’s awesome hands. (Romans
12:19)
In the first
part of this segment, I mentioned the
devil will be defeated for the
seventh time at the Second Coming.
During the seven last plagues, the
devil will be publicly humiliated
(fifth bowl). In a rage, the devil
will gather the armies of Earth
together in a massive attempt to
murder Jesus when He appears. “They
[the ten kings] have one
purpose and will give their power and
authority to the [lamb-like] beast.
They will make war against the Lamb,
but the Lamb will overcome them
because he is Lord of lords and Kings
of kings….” (Revelation
17:13,14, insertions mine) Of course,
the wicked will perish, but once
again, murder will be seen as the
horrible fruit of hatred. If there is
any hatred in your heart, ask Jesus
to give you victory over it. He will!
