Revelation
12:7-14:5
The Four Beasts of
Revelation
#1. The Great Red
Dragon
(Continued)
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It is also
important to understand these two
prophecies because the methods of
Lucifer are very surprising and
clever. Here’s the question: The
human point of view is simply
inadequate. That’s why God put
these matters in the Bible.
God wants us
to see more and understand more about
life than the naked eye can see.
Lucifer preyed upon Jesus using a
demon possessed man. Then, Lucifer
preyed upon the saints for 1,260
years using a church full of demon
possessed men. The surprising thing
about this story is how Lucifer
cleverly used ‘the church”
(visible) to persecute the saints,
the church (invisible).
Now that you
understand these matters, let’s
explain Revelation 12:7-14:5
Lucifer
versus the woman.
This prophecy
begins with verse 7:
Revelation
12:7 And there was war in
heaven, Michael and his angels
fought against the dragon, and
the dragon and his angels fought
back.
Revelation
12:8 But he was not strong enough,
and they lost their place in heaven.
Revelation
12:9 The great dragon was hurled
down – that ancient serpent
called the devil, or Satan, who
leads the whole world astray. He was
hurled [in] to the earth,
and his angels with him.”
This prophecy
begins with a war in Heaven.
When did this
war occur? The Bible exclusively
indicates this war occurred on Resurrection
Sunday. (April 9, A.D. 30)
Many
Christians erroneously think this war
occurred before the world
was created. This is not
possible. Here’s why: When
Lucifer was cast out; a declaration
was announced in Heaven:
Revelation
12:10 Then I heard a loud voice in
heaven say: “Now (right
now)have come the salvation and the
power and the kingdom of God, and the authority of
his Christ [e.g., Jesus has
displaced the authority of Lucifer). For the
accuser of our brothers, who
accuses them before our God day and
night, has been hurled
down.”
Lucifer is
our accuser…. And angels are our
brothers…. If this war occurred
in Heaven before the world
was created, there would be no
brothers on Earth to accuse!
Even if this war occurred the day sin
began, how could the angel declare:
“Now [right
now] have come the salvation
and the power and the kingdom of our
God, and the authority of
his Christ. For the accuser of our
brothers, who accuses them before our
God day and night, has been hurled
down.”?
Makes no
sense!
Revelation
12:11 (This verse explains how
sinners overcome this powerful
predator and this declaration is
inserted at this point in the
prophecy because Lucifer’s
accusations against the saints have
no merit) They overcame him [the
devil]by the blood of the Lamb and by
the word of their testimony; they
did not love their lives so much as
to shrink from death.”
Revelation
12:12 Therefore rejoice, you heavens
and you who dwell in them! But woe to
the earth and the sea, because the
devil has gone down to you! He is
filled with fury, because he knows
that his [remaining days] time
is short.”
When Jesus
was resurrected, the devil knew that
he and his angels were hopelessly
doomed for destruction. The devil
knew that his remaining days would be
short. The word “short” is
relative to the length of years the
devil has been alive. (What’s
2,000 years compared to –25,000
years?)
Look at the
next verse. We are looking for proof
that this war in Heaven took place on
Resurrection Sunday:
Revelation
12:13 “When the dragon saw that
he had been hurled to the earth, he
pursued the woman who had given birth
to the male child.”
This is the clincher verse.
Look closely at the timing declared
in this verse:
Chronology in
Verse 13
-----------a-------------------b-----------------c-----à
4
B.C. A.D.
30 A.D.
538
“When
the dragon saw (b) that he
had been hurled to the earth, he (c) pursued
the woman who (a) had
given birthto the male
child.”
Verse 13
clearly forces the war to occur after
4 B.C.
But wait!
There’s one more passage of
Scripture that will nail it down the
dating of this war in Heaven! A few
days before His death, Jesus went to
the temple. We begin with….
John 12:28 Father,
glorify your name!” Then there
came a voice from heaven, “I
have glorified it, and will glorify
it again.”
John 12:29 The
crowd that was there and heard it
said it had thundered; others said an
angel had spoken to him.
John 12:30 Jesus
said, “This voice was for your
benefit, not mine.
John 12:31 Now [right
now] is the time for judgment on
this world [e.g., the moment of
truth has come to see who will now
win the contest]; now [right
now, this coming week
end] the prince of this world
will be driven out [of Heaven.
He will lose his seat in
Heaven’s court as Earth’s
representative].
Revelation
12:13 clearly says
the war in Heaven happened after the
woman had given birth (4
B.C.), and we also know that after
the devil was cast out, an angel
declared, “Now have
come salvation….” because
Jesus had just paid the price for sin
and was resurrected that very
morning!
The
involuntary but justified
“unseating of Lucifer” in
Heaven caused this war. Lucifer was
thrown out of Heaven because on the
basis of a sinless life and perfect
submission to the Father’s will,
Jesus had won back (redeemed) the
right to represent Earth in
Heaven’s court. So, the devil
became madder than a
“wet hen.”
Look at his
string of failures:
1. Lucifer
tried to kill Jesus at birth.
2. He tried to kill Jesus at birth.
3. He tried to keep Jesus in the
tomb.
4. So, madder than a wet hen, Lucifer
turned his attention to the
work that Jesus began while on Earth,
the church.
For the first
two hundred years after he was cast
out of Heaven, the devil persecuted
Christians with a zeal that was
unbelievable. When he saw that
persecution was not working, the
devil infiltrated the church! He
worked on carnal minds of men and
women in leadership positions and
through them; he eventually gained
control over the church visible. By
A.D. 538, he was ready to eliminate
the church invisible.
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