The Christ in Prophecy Journal

The Mighty Angels of Revelation 12 at War

MP3: The Mighty Angels of Revelation 12
Hosts: Nathan Jones & Vic Batista

Satan’s Last Heavenly Coup

Vic Batista: We are continuing to look at Revelation 12 concerning the exile of Satan and his demonic forces after they lost the epic angelic war that took place in Heaven. Revelation 12 has been a very, very exciting passage! There are some wonderful insights into the fight between good and evil. Let’s quickly recap Revelation 12:1-12.

Nathan Jones: Revelation 12 presents us with five different characters. We have been going through 14 of the judgments of Revelation, but now with chapter 12 we are getting deeper into who the characters and players of Revelation are.

The first character the chapter introduces us to is the Woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars. If you go back to Joseph’s dream in Genesis, you learn the Woman represents the nation of Israel.

Next we are introduced to fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads, which we will know from Revelation 13 is Satan. A third of the stars were thrown out with Satan down to the earth. Those stars are the demons that have been inhabiting the world today.

The Woman Israel will bear a male child who will rule, and He is clearly Jesus the Messiah. The Dragon wants to devour the Child, but he’s caught up to safety at God’s throne.

Having failed to kill the Child, the Dragon turns his full wrath upon the Woman. Israel will flee into the wilderness at the mid-way point of the Tribulation and for 3.5 years will be protected by God. Other verses in the Bible hint that the wilderness is Petra located inside of southern Jordan today.

So, these are the five main characters that we were introduced to in Revelation 12’s imagery — the Woman, the Dragon, the Child, the Stars and God Himself.

Vic Batista: Scriptures confirm that God and His mighty angels will win the heavenly fight. The victory is comforting for God’s children, for we know that we all win through Christ’s victories. Satan and his demons will ultimately lose, but they’ll have 3.5 years left on this earth to wage war, and so continue to charge after God’s people trying to destroy the nation of Israel and the Tribulation Saints. But, God is going to supernaturally protect a remnant of the people of Israel.

Nathan Jones: Should anyone wish to know where Petra is, all they have to do is watch the third Indiana Jones movie. Remember where the Holy Grail was supposedly kept? Indiana Jones stands outside of this stone-carved edifice, well that is Petra. That quite secure location is believed to be the location where the Jewish people will be protected for 3.5 years while the Antichrist is fighting those who didn’t make it to Petra. We will read later in Revelation those protected will have accepted Jesus as Savior upon His return.

Vic Batista: How exciting that when it comes to the Bible lands, these are actual places that people can visit today and by reading Scriptures can recognize where all this is going to happen.

Nathan Jones: I have traveled to Israel a few times and being there really brings the Bible to life, because you are standing where Jesus stood. I remember having twice stood in the Valley of Elah where David fought Goliath. You can still see the cliffs on one side where the Israelite army was encamped, and you can see the cliffs on the other side of the valley where the Philistines were positioned. The cliffs are cut by a riverbed, though it isn’t a stream anymore as it’s all dried out. That is the very riverbed where David picked up the stones and hurled one to kill Goliath. You can stand in actual, historically and geographically documented areas in Israel where the biblical events unfolded, and so the Bible truly comes to life.

Lamb & Lion Ministries on our tours doesn’t make it down to Petra like we used to because it takes a lot of time and the location is so far out of the way from the rest of the tour. What with all the tension in the Middle East right now, it isn’t the best time to visit Jordan. Other ministries continue to travel down to Petra unscathed.

Vic Batista: How very exciting that we are talking about these places in Israel, meanwhile they are all written in God’s Word. These places have been visited for thousands of years, continuing to prove the historicity of the Bible. In those very same places, the Bible tells us about some futuristic events that are going to to develop in Israel and Jordan, which we can even visit today.

Like watching a movie about Revelation, something dramatic is going to happen in the near future.

Nathan Jones: I believe the Tribulation is coming right around the corner, but first, Jesus is coming back to rapture the Church, and so the Tribulation is not far behind. A lot of what we are covering in Revelation could very well happen in the next few years, or at least in the next few decades. We are getting so very close to what we are reading about here in Revelation coming true.

#Jesus is coming to rapture the #Church, so the #Tribulation is not far behind. Click To Tweet

Vic Batista: According to various scriptures, the Tribulation is divided into two segments of 3.5 years each, or two segments of 42 months each. Revelation 12:7 breaks the half-Tribulation timing down to days, “one thousand two hundred and sixty days,” to be exact.

Let’s reread Revelation 12:7-12.

“And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, ‘Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.'”

There are a whole bunch of things happening in this passage. War breaks out in Heaven, simply amazing!

Nathan Jones: This passage in the Bible likely holds the greatest concentration of angels. As we are covering the subject of angels in Revelation, we are at the climax so far in Satan’s epic struggle against God and His angelic forces. This is where the angels are all duking it out! Meanwhile there are also wars going on across the earth during the Tribulation, tremendous wars, wars that kill half of the world’s population. So, both Heaven and earth are embroiled in spiritual warfare.

By the mid-point of the Tribulation, Satan has tried one last time to overthrow God in Heaven, but completely lost and now has been exiled permanently to earth. Losing Heaven, Satan continues his attempt to conquer the earth. We’re now at where the Antichrist enters into the Third Temple in Jerusalem and he desecrates it, then Satan through the Antichrist dares to declare himself to be God.

Remember that Satan is the most powerful of all created beings, but he is nowhere nearly as powerful as God. He and his demons of course lose their coup, resulting in God finally cutting Satan’s access from Heaven off. Satan up to this point has continued to have access to Heaven. We see that this has been the case, especially in the book of Job where Satan goes before God and he accuses Job. Satan is like the world’s sleaziest lawyer. He goes before God and he accuses the saints daily. Job reveals, “day and night.” Satan lives to try and denigrate God’s children and make us look guilty before Him. Sometimes God will react to Satan’s arguments, as He did with Job when testing Job’s faith. At other times God won’t listen to Satan whatsoever. But, for some reason, and this is a mystery, God continues to allow Satan to come up to Heaven and accuse us day and night. So, Satan is pretty busy in that area.

#Satan is the most powerful created being, but he's nowhere nearly as powerful as #God. Click To Tweet

But, by this point in Revelation 12, God says, “No, more!” God casts Satan out with the demons he was able to bring with him. God casts them down to this earth and there they remain for only 3.5 years left of the Tribulation. That’s why verse 12 reveals that the “devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.” Satan knows Bible prophecy. He knows that he only has 42 months left before Jesus returns, so his insidious plans go into overdrive.

Vic Batista: Good point that Satan knows Bible prophecy. Yet, there are so many believers, and pastors even, who don’t want to pay attention to the fact that Satan has more interest in Bible prophecy than they do. Why is that?

Nathan Jones: Wow! the irony of that is stunning, isn’t it? Satan understands the Bible. He knows God is the real deal. When we read Revelation, I think for a lot of us it is so outside our day-to-day life. We are so used to driving to work, and eating breakfast, and just doing the daily things in life, that when we read about these fantastical types of characters and events in Bible prophecy, it’s almost like we are reading science fiction. You can’t quite believe it can be real. Even many pastors don’t quite believe that Revelation could literally happen. But, Revelation and other books of prophecy are there in the Bible, and the Bible is God’s Word. We have to take it as it is. So, if Satan believes what Bible prophecy teaches, shouldn’t believers in Christ even more so believe in it?

If #Satan believes what #Bible prophecy teaches, shouldn't #Christians even more so believe? Click To Tweet

Vic Batista: The loss is rather sad. I pray for those pastors and church leaders that God will help them in this area. The Enemy knows what time it is, and so should Christians.

Nathan Jones: I think Satan got the biggest hint that Jesus is coming back soon when he thought he was destroying the Jewish people during the Nazi Holocaust. The negative reaction by the world to the Holocaust spurned the United Nations back in 1947 to vote to give the Jewish people their own nation. The Jews declared Israel as their own nation in 1948. Satan must have been like, “What?!” Every time Satan attempts to thwart God’s plan, God uses the failed attempt to advance His own plans. Satan seriously must be the most frustrated being in all of history.

Vic Batista: And we can make Satan’s job more frustrating when we pray, because when we pray we literally have access to God’s own strength and His angelic beings. For example, when the prophet Daniel prayed in Daniel 9, God responded by sending Gabriel out on Daniel’s behalf. So, prayer is how we can frustrate Satan’s plans and help snatch people out of the flames of Hell and into the arms of Jesus.

Nathan Jones: Beautifully said! We are in a spiritual battle. We cannot hope to fight Satan and his demons on our own. We cannot, for we are not powerful enough. We need to stay connected to Jesus Christ with prayer so that His power can flow through us and He can defend us by His own mighty hand and by the guardian angels whom He assigned to us. Temptation is always there, and Satan wants to tempt us and pull us away from Jesus Christ and His mission for us on earth. But, Satan is going down! He knows it, but he is going to take as many people as he can with him to Hell.

In the twenty-seventh segment of our series “The Mighty Angels of Revelation,” Michael the Archangel will fight the Dragon.

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Dr. Nathan E. Jones

As the Internet Evangelist at Lamb & Lion Ministries, Nathan reaches out to the over 4.5 billion people accessible over the Internet with the Good News of Jesus Christ. He also co-hosts the ministry's television program Christ in Prophecy and podcast The Truth Will Set You Free.

2 CommentsLeave a Comment

  • Why didn’t/doesn’t/wouldn’t Satan read the bible the way that the world does and just NOT do what is predicted of him and make God and the bible a liar?
    why wouldn’t he NOT implement the mark of the beast, which is designed to show the unreliability of man, and make the prophecies of the bible unreliable?
    why wouldn’t he NOT have the two witnesses killed? think of the ramifications if they weren’t.
    you cannot deny the fact that if the bible is discredited then satan would have a much larger following.
    according to your teachings (leaven) the best strategy for satan would be to do nothing.

    • All great questions, Mike! I can only assume that because Satan in his past megalomania thought he could conquer God, so in the future continues to believe if his forces are large enough he can finally achieve victory. He’s the Father of Lies, and yet believes his own self-delusion.

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