davidbowerkingwood

The Coming War in Heaven

In the recent series on the spiritual war I mentioned that although Satan had lost his position in heaven, he still had access to heaven and referenced his conversation with God concerning Job in Job 1:6-12.

There is a time coming when that will all be changed; Satan will be forced out of heaven never to return. That last war in heaven will take place at the mid-point of the Tribulation and serve as the catalyst for the time known as The Great Tribulation.” This amazing event is described in Revelation 12:7-12.

⁷ And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,

⁸ And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.

⁹ 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.

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.

¹¹ And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.

¹² Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.

In verse 10 we see that Satan had been busy all this time accusing the brethren before God day and night. It would appear from that statement that most of the “satanic” activity on earth was the work of Satan’s demons and the fallen, sinful nature of man, and not Satan himself. Satan is not omnipresent, he can only be in one place at a time.

The Church in Heaven

At the point this last war in heaven starts, the church will have been there for an unspecified amount of time. The Bible does not reveal if we, as part of the church, will have much, if any, contact with Satan and the fallen angels during this time. From the wording of those verses it would appear that the church has no active part in that war and the Bible does not tell us if we will be spectators to the war itself.

Since we will return with the Lord Jesus Christ at the time of His Second Advent and observe the Battle of Armageddon, I think it reasonable to assume we shall also watch the last war in heaven; we will, after our resurrection, have become a higher form of creation than the angels.

The Great Tribulation

The casting out of Satan has very bad consequences for the inhabitants of earth, “Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.” It is at this point we believe Satan indwells the antichrist and declares himself to be god. (2 Thessalonians 2:4)

Satan’s day of reckoning is coming soon and he knows it; he just wants to take as many with him as he can; this has been his mission since his fall described in Isaiah 14:12f and Ezekiel 28:11f and will continue until he is thrown into the Lake of Fire where he will remain forever. “¹⁰ And the devil (Satan), who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.” Revelation 20:10

The Choice

As human beings, descendants of Adam and Eve, we have been given a choice and there is no straddling the fence in this matter; we can either choose Christ and life, or Satan and death. The choice is yours, I urge you to choose Christ and life! The Bible is very clear on this matter.

¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.¹⁸ Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. John 3:16-18

³⁶ Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them. John 3:36

The Consequences of Rejecting Christ

¹¹ Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them.¹² And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.¹³ The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done.¹⁴ Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.¹⁵ Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire. Revelation 20:11-15

These are profoundly serious matters with eternal consequences; make sure you wind up on God’s side of that fence by receiving Jesus Christ as Savior!