The Little Book that John Ate"
Chapter 12
I
Beheld Satan as Lightening Fall from Heaven
God dwells in the praises of
His people. There is power in your
praises of God. But men here on
earth often curse God and blame Him for their troubles.
This problem will increase as the time nears for Jesus to return.
Thus the misery of man is multiplied right out of his own mouth.
God, our Father, desires our praises because as we open our hearts to
praise Him, He can dwell there.
8) “Oh
that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to
the children of men!”
John 12:31
states that the prince of this world has been cast out.
The prince of darkness is satan. His
goal is to keep man in darkness, confusion and deception so that man cannot know
the way of salvation in Christ. When
man curses God he brings glory to satan.
The Father sent Jesus, the Son of God.
Jesus came into the world to retrieve man from the power of the prince of
this world. All the powers of
satan’s darkness knew and recognized Jesus.
Jesus came without camouflage or disguise.
Some evil spirits cried out to Him, “What do we to do with thee, thou
Son of God?” He was completely
exposed to them as he invaded their domain to lead man out of their chains and
prison of darkness.
16) “The
people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the
region and shadow of death light is sprung up.”
Since Jesus Christ, the Messiah of God, came to
this earth, man has at last a way to be saved.
There was no way before because all have sinned.
Praise God He gave His only Son to pay for man with His own holy blood.
That is love. In the olden
days the promise of hope was given but now the way has been given.
Christ is the way, the truth
and the life came to pay for man’s sine and retrieve us and restore us
faultless to God. It is He to whom
we belonged originally. The enemy
forces are fighting to keep man away from the truth.
This can only be described as a spiritual battle.
So now we may understand this fourth kingdom on earth is the scene of a
war for souls of men.
17) “From that time
Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the
kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
This is the message which
John the Baptizer began to preach, preparing the way for the Lord.
It was a declaration of war on earth as well as in heaven.
Jesus said:
12) “And
from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth
violence, and the violent take it by force.”
Now just to refresh our minds as we recall four kingdoms were presented
in the book of Daniel. They are
also identified in Daniel. The
first kingdom was Babylon with Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar, his son, as kings.
The second was Persia with Darius and Cyrus as kings.
The third was Greece. The
fourth kingdom is truly diverse from all others.
It stretches from the early days of the Ancient Roman Empire and
continues until God sits in judgment of the ten-horned beast and of the whole
world. This fourth kingdom has
already spanned almost two thousand years!
Then ten horned anti-christ beast of government has not yet been
destroyed as promised in Daniel 7:7, 11 but it will be done at
judgment.
This fourth kingdom is a worldwide battlefield in
the fight to save the lost. It is
the Christ and anti-christ conflict to the end.
The battle lines were drawn when Jesus walked the earth.
He said He saw satan fall from heaven (Luke 10:18).
We know there was war in heaven beginning when satan tried to devour the
infant Christ (Revelation 12:4).
As on earth also as noted before, the evidence was
present at the birth of the Messiah. Herod
used his power to mark for death by government order all the little boys under
two years of age.
This fourth kingdom will end when Christ has put
all his enemies under his feet, for he will rule with a rod or iron.
“For the enemy that shall be destroyed is death.”
(1 Corinthians 15:26).
The final ruler, of which there have been many
over these hundreds of years, is also part of the ten-horned beast of anti-christ
government. This little horn that
comes up last of all in the fourth kingdom (Daniel 7:7-8 and Daniel
8:9, 11) is spoken of in Daniel 11 as the king of the north.
His reign continues into the last half of the seven year, the 70th
week of years. This last ruler will have a mark that cannot be hidden from
God.
16)
“And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to
receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
17)
And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the
beast, or the number of his name.
18) Here is wisdom.
Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the
number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.”
Food is the crucial necessity of life.
“No man may buy or sell” includes food.
Many will subject themselves to anti-christ mark or name or number in
order to obtain food for their children. Without
this membership identification of the mark, no food can be purchased. In order to obtain this mark or permit men must show
willingness to acclaim or worship an image.
Hunger is a strong weapon to hold over people.
We must never cease to pray for those who must endure this because they
refuse Christ now but will know the truth after it is too late to escape.
It is my prayer that this insight will provide a
motivation for Christians to get out and share Jesus with as many as possible in
the short time remaining.
This anti-christ ruler number is 666, will be
exercising the power of the devil. He
is part of the ten-horned beast, which carries Babylon to her destruction and
burns her with fire.
13) “And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh
fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men”
This fellow also takes away
the right to worship God (Daniel 8:11) and sets the abomination that makes
desolate. He makes the order
(Revelation 13:15) that all men must worship his image or be killed.
Jesus speaks of this time in Matthew 24:
21)
“For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the
beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.”
The image out of which he makes this strange god
is one who also was part of the anti-christ beast. He ruled fro 42 months as a great power in the world after
which he receives a mortal wound. However,
before this, he speaks against God in blasphemy.
7)
“And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them:
and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.
8)
And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not
written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the
world.”
Politically, he has the power to overcome all
opposition. None will be able to
resist him. Any effort of the
people of God to resist will be crushed. It
is easy to understand when the last little horn is looking for a strong symbol
to put before the people in the place of God.
Thus he selects his predecessor. As
this fourth kingdom is climaxed, we need to realize this: as each seal is opened
and each trumpet sounds, the woe of each one continues on
some increase in magnitude as time goes on.
So that at the last day every evil, plague and trouble will converge as
anti-christ collapses before the armies of heaven.
Praise and glory to Jesus!
The Holy Spirit reveals the truth to us was we
listen. Since the very moment the
blood of Christ began to flow there has been no sin marked on the eternal record
against those who belong to Jesus. His
blood washed the old record clean. Now
the record is Jesus’ righteousness before God.
The accuser has been cast out and there is no one to pronounce the sins
and speak them into the eternal record.
Now superimposed on the place where our sin record
should be is absolutely nothing but the blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God.
Formerly satan went through the earth (Job 1:7) preparing
his accusations to be reported before the throne of God day and night (Revelation
12:10). Thus he would build
himself up on the detailed reports of man’s sins.
Remember God made man in His own image and said that His creation was
good.
Satan, flying in the face of God reported only
evil to Him as he still had access to heaven.
His access even to the throne of God had not yet been revoked.
From the beginning he went about spreading corruption and sin among
God’s creation.
Not only did he deceive Adam and Eve, but he also
corrupted the brotherhood of man at the beginning. Remember the first two brothers, Cain and Abel?
Every person since Adam and Eve has the knowledge of good and evil and is
accountable for this knowledge (Genesis 3:3-6).
As mankind has become alienated from God, they all came under satan’s
dominion. In that condition they
had no hope. They were prisoners of
darkness.
So God sent His only begotten Son Jesus to pay the
ransom and restore unto God His own created children, and through Him gave
son-ship to man.
In the war in heaven satan was cast out into the
earth. Jesus’ blood then washed
away our sins. His blood bought and
paid for our salvation. Thus God
provided the way of salvation where there was none before.
This fourth kingdom on earth has been a time of
God showing His salvation. The
accuser is barred from his former place before God.
10)
“And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and
strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the
accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and
night.”
It has been almost 2,000 years now and the blood
of our Savior still hast he power to save souls and change lives.
All who are in Christ are completely covered.
But the prince of this present world, the devil, has power over carnal
man. Jesus is and always has been
the way out of that darkness during this fourth kingdom.
For God is not willing that any should perish.
Praise God!
The Word of God is true. Every prophecy and promise will be fulfilled.
Every Word is truth. The
Bible is not just a lot of unreal and high sounding words to be critiqued as
prose or poetry. This is the blood
and guts Word of our Heavenly Father who loves everyone and wants all to receive
adoption through His Son.
The Word of God stands by itself.
It does not need man to add his own interpretation.
The Word of God is the Truth. A
believer does not need to justify or defend the truth.
A believer must speak the way, the truth and the life in Jesus. We know that each word written in the Word of God was given
by inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God. We
know that the Word of God will not return to Him void but will accomplish its
purpose.
16)
“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:”
11) “So
shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me
void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the
thing whereto I sent it.”
24)
“The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so
shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand:”
Contend aggressively for the
faith. Do men gripped by deadly
habits, fears and sin turn to Jesus in tears of repentance unto salvation
because they encountered an eloquent defense of the Bible?
No, man comes to Jesus because He is the way, the Truth and the life.
In the Word of God there is power and order.
As the Holy Spirit teaches us we find every word is satisfying and
edifying. It nourishes our souls.
Both the Old and New Testaments compliment each other.
As we study them, they come together to form a harmonious mélange of
truth that satisfies the most compelling hunger of mind and soul, as no other
book of man’s knowledge can satisfy. Glory
to God!
God through Christ has opened the option to man to
choose whether or not he will be saved. The
Word of God has been laid out before the eyes of man as never before.
But beloved children of our Father through Christ, this fourth kingdom is
careening toward its completion. Open
your heart and let the Holy Spirit change you into a living epistle of the
Gospel that can be read by all men. Mankind
needs to see God’s love reaching out to them.
All rights reserved The Body of Christ International, Inc. © 1997
[ Back to If Ye Have Ears...Home Page ]